Spells and Illusions
by UnromanticPoetess
Summary: Sequel to "A Darker Shade of Green." Rita's evil spell is lifted, and Tommy's on the side of good. Of course, Tommy's problems are not over, as he has to deal with lingering mistrust from his new team, as well as Rita's new assault against the Rangers.
1. The Portal

**Author's Notes**: Fixed for grammar.

* * *

**Spells and Illusions**

**Chapter 1: The Portal**

"Ugh…" Scorpina scowled at the rancid fumes permeating the throne room. "I hate this mystic stuff. Why are we here, again?"

Goldar, as usual, looked unfazed. "We are to provide backup. Sometimes these magics call forth some pretty bad things." He smirked. "And not in a good way. Things that can hurt Empress Rita. So, our job is to fight anything that comes through that portal."

The portal filled one corner of the throne room, and all the furniture and shelves had been shoved to the side. It had slowly formed from the size of a marble to its full size, so that two could walk in easily. At this moment, it was a bright green, and mists swirled feverishly.

Rita sat on the floor before it, her eyes closed in deep concentration. A book was open in front of her, but she had ceased to read from it long ago. Incense burned all around her, providing the stench that turned Scorpina's stomach. Yet Rita remained impassive. She seemed to be calling power from deep within.

That actually bothered Scorpina more than the smell. This looked like dangerous magic, and she didn't like it one bit.

"I swear," she growled, "the whole place is going to smell like that damn incense. I won't be able to taste food for a week."

"Empress Rita knows what she's doing," Goldar said wearily. He'd been listening to Scorpina's complaints all afternoon.

For weeks, in fact. It had been nearly three weeks since the debacle over the Green Ranger. The first few days had been spent on resting, but after that Scorpina had been nearly unbearable. Inaction was not her strong suit.

Goldar had to admit that he was getting restless as well. He didn't dare suggest an attack plan to Empress Rita—not since the last time he'd taken matters into his own hands. He was glad, therefore, that Rita seemed to be gearing up for another attack. He'd almost been afraid that she'd somehow lost her nerve with the whole Tommy thing.

"That should do it," Rita said, making everyone jump.

The portal closed with a blink, and Rita pushed herself to her feet before anyone could help her. She didn't seem drained this time, like she usually looked after a huge magical effort. She looked somehow reenergized, almost glowing. She looked better than she had in weeks.

"Squatt! Babboo!" she barked. "Rather than cowering in the corner—the big, bad portal is gone, you know—do something useful and go tell Finster I need a monster. Right away!"

"Yes, sir!" Babboo saluted. "I mean… Ma'am! I mean…"

Squatt grabbed him by the collar and started pulling him out of the room. "No more war movies for you!" he said, each syllable punctuated by a hit.

The others had great practice in ignoring them. "So what's the big, shiny portal for, Rita?" Scorpina attempted a casual tone. "That wasn't a portal to the Dark Galaxy, was it? Cuz if your dad found out…"

"Don't be ridiculous," Rita said airily. She was already peering into her telescope. "_That_, my dear warriors, was a portal that will be especially useful in my larger plan surrounding the Power Rangers. And I wasn't entirely truthful… it isn't completely gone. Now that I've called it into existence, I can summon it at a moment's notice. Now… we just need to tweak circumstances just right…" Her voice died away as she continued to concentrate on whatever she was looking at on Earth.

"Empress…" Goldar shifted uncertainly, obviously itching to know the plan.

Scorpina rolled her eyes. "Come on, Rita. Don't keep us in the dark. If you want praise for your brilliant plan, you're gonna have to share it with us."

Rita looked up from the telescope, laughter in her eyes. "So… you want me to go over my plan, insult the Rangers a bit… laugh maniacally at the end?"

"It _is_ traditional, Empress Rita," Goldar said.

Scorpina punched Goldar on the shoulder, and then drew her hand back, forgetting how the armor hurt. "There's the old Goldar. Nice to see your sense of humor hasn't gone away entirely."

Rita propelled herself to the throne, but didn't sit down. "You're right, Goldar, it _is_ traditional. And thankfully the rest of my audience is here. Come on, you two fools! Finster, I'll give you the specs for the new monster in a minute."

The air rang with anticipation as the inhabitants of the moon palace gathered in the throne room. It was as if they were collectively waking from a long sickness.

"I admit," Empress Rita began, "we have recently suffered some major setbacks. We've lost the Green Power Coin, a secret weapon that was to be my ultimate trump against Zordon and his wretched Power Twerps. We've also lost Tommy, who we can all agree is one of the most formidable warriors any of us has ever seen."

"We'll give the traitor _that_," Goldar mumbled.

"And, as Goldar has pointed out," Rita smiled at him, "he has gone to the side of our enemies, thus giving them all his fighting expertise and inventiveness… as well as the Green Power Coin. If they know how to use him, they can all become very dangerous to us indeed."

"This supposed to be a pep talk?" Scorpina laughed bitterly. "Cuz I'm so happy I could just slit my wrists."

"If this is a pep rally, can we be the cheerleaders?" Babboo chimed in. "Squatt, why couldn't we have brought our pompoms?"

"If all of you don't _shut up!_"

Complete silence followed Rita's outburst.

"We're sorry," Squatt said.

Scorpina, less affected by Rita's ire, smirked. "We'll be good. We promise."

Rita rolled her eyes. "So… if I can continue… as you know, we've suffered some pretty major setbacks. However, all of that is about the change." She paused, pleased that she had everyone's complete attention again. "I know now that I've been going about fighting the Power Rangers all wrong. They're too resourceful… too powerful… to just defeat with one spell, or one monster attack. Their strength lies in banding together, in facing adversity. No… nothing short-term can stand a chance of defeating them. We must have a more long-term plan.

"There is one good thing that came from Tommy's time with us: we learned more about humans than we could have ever hoped from simply watching those Power Brats run around school, volunteering for saving the disenfranchised puppies, or whatever the hell they're always up to. Humans… as we have come to determine… are ruled by their emotions. _Especially_ teenagers. While they can find great power in emotions, they can also find great weakness.

"It was through emotion that the Rangers were able to break the ties between Tommy and me. I was able to gather that much. And throughout our recent fights, the Rangers were at their weakest when overcome with emotion. The Red Ranger, for instance, now fears you especially, Goldar."

"He should," Goldar said smugly.

"Wasn't this Tommy's plan?" Scorpina said, unable to restrain herself. "Cuz it sounds like your long-term goal centers on demoralization."

Rita's face lit up. "That's exactly right, Scorpina. And don't look at me that way. Tommy's plan would have worked if we had been patient. We weren't, Tommy included, and we paid the price for our hastiness. We demoralize them over the long term. They may win each battle, but each battle will cost them dearly… until we finally crush them."

"Messing with their heads?" Scorpina said. "Sounds exciting. I might stick around longer than I thought."

"That… makes a lot of sense," Goldar said slowly. "It's not my kind of fighting, though."

"Don't worry," Rita said. "There will be plenty of work for everyone. In fact, Goldar, I think you'll enjoy your part of this first phase immensely."

"Mystical portals?" Goldar said.

"Ah, yes," Rita said. "I nearly forgot. Your job will be to help herd those hapless Rangers into the portal. I'm sure it won't be all that difficult."

"How are we going to demoralize them if they're stuck in who knows where?" Scorpina said. "Really, Rita, where does that thing lead to?"

Rita grinned, pausing for suspense. "The one place guaranteed to play on those teens' insecurities. They're confident right now; they imagine they've just won a huge victory. This place… will certainly shake their confidence."

* * *

"It's not that you lack the knowledge. It's just that you haven't got any confidence."

Billy pulled himself off the mat, grudgingly accepting Tommy's hand up. "Or it could be that you're entirely too fast for me. I can't follow you."

Billy winced as he shifted his shoulder. They'd been training for an hour, and Billy had taken more than one tumble onto the mat.

"I think we've reached our limit for today," Tommy conceded, though he knew he could go for at least another hour of hard training. He had to remind himself to pace carefully with Billy, who could hurt himself if he pushed himself too hard.

The training room echoed. It was a bit large for Tommy's taste; they had converted one of the Command Center's many unused rooms into a training room big enough for all six of them. As part of the Rangers' continuing plan to keep surveillance from Rita at a minimum, they had worked on the Command Center more and more to support all their needs. They had the training room, Billy and Trini had a full, working lab, and they all had emergency lodgings.

Tommy and Billy had decided it was best to hold Billy's training sessions in the Command Center. Tommy sensed that Billy just didn't want to be embarrassed by his slow progress, but Tommy had a hidden agenda: he wanted to keep Billy's progress secret from the moon palace. Best to keep as many surprises as they could.

Billy slouched over to a bench on the wall and buried his face in a towel. "Tommy, there's no way I can even hope to be as good a fighter as you. I just… don't have what it takes, or something to that effect."

"Bullshit," Tommy said. "You know the moves. We've been over them, like, a hundred times. It's just… you hesitate. Each time you almost had me, you stop, or you don't press the advantage. You let me get in." He frowned. "And you know I'm already uncomfortable with this, anyway."

Billy looked up and gave a tired smile. "I'm sorry. I appreciate that you're trying to teach me, I really do. I shouldn't complain so much."

Tommy shrugged, clearly uncomfortable with the gratitude. "It's not that I don't want to help you. I do. I just don't know why you don't want, say, Jason… or Zack."

Billy rolled his eyes. "The one time I asked? They put me in their class."

"With the 12-year-olds?"

Billy nodded.

"Ouch. Well…" Tommy hedged, not wanting to criticize anyone. "They just weren't thinking, I guess."

Billy smiled. "This works out better, anyway. I help you with math, you help me not look like a complete spaz while fighting Putties."

"Ugh…" Tommy felt like burying _his_ head in a towel. "Don't remind me of math. Why do we need it in the real world anyway…" He smirked; he could see Billy gearing up for his "math is important" lecture. "Forget I said anything."

"You know," Billy commented, "what you said about me earlier. About it all being a lack of confidence? I could say the same for you and math."

"Oh, I'm plenty confident," Tommy said. "Plenty confident that I'm never going to get through this class. I mean, once you understand one thing, they start you on something else. Why do they do that?"

"It's an evil conspiracy," Billy said. "All targeted at you. In fact, I think Euclid wrote specifically about you in his _Elements_."

"You see," Tommy said. "It's no fair using sarcasm when I can't even understand half the stuff you're saying."

They parted, Billy to work on the anti-surveillance equipment with Alpha. Tommy wasn't due back at home—in fact, his father had sorted of hinted that he might want to delay coming home for a bit longer that evening. His father had been doing that a lot lately… Tommy put it down to him needing more time to work on the novel. There was a deadline coming up, after all.

Tommy tapped his communicator and landed in the deserted spot near the Youth Center's loading dock. He made double sure no one had seen him and jogged around to enter the Youth Center by the front entrance.

No special events at the Youth Center that day, though there were posters advertising the upcoming food drive, basketball tryouts, and a teamed martial arts competition. That was another reason he and Billy didn't train in the Youth Center: about every other day there seemed to be some event hosted in the gym area.

At this time, Jason and Zack looked to be halfway through their class. They nodded at him as he entered but kept their attention strictly on the class.

Kimberly and Trini were in the bar area, poring over a heavily-marked posterboard. Kimberly glanced up at Tommy's approach. "Hey, Tommy. What's up?"

"No much," he said, pressing down the giddy glee he experienced every time he managed a casual, not-awkward conversation with Kimberly. He glanced over at Trini, who looked amused. In order to avoid Trini's too-intuitive gaze, he glanced down at the posterboard. "Is this a float?"

"Good guess," Trini said. "It's _supposed_ to be a float… and it will be eventually."

Kimberly threw down a marker in mock pouting. "The design's all screwed up. How the heck are we supposed to make this thing with nothing but flowers?"

Trini sighed, clearly as put out. "We're entering it into a contest for the Girls' Chapter float in the Harvest Parade. It's sort of a big deal in Angel Grove," she explained to Tommy. "Well, the seniors in the Girls' Chapter decided to make it flower themed… which, in late Fall, can get pretty expensive."

"I'll bet," Tommy said. "Why didn't they choose a fruit theme? There's plenty around… it's cheap right now… and it seems to fit with more of the harvest theme."

"Oh, no, that would make _sense_," Kimberly said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"That's what she suggested," Trini said in a low voice. "Kim's the sophomore representative on the planning committee. They pretty much ignored her."

Tommy suddenly felt a swoop of unsubstantiated anger toward the unnamed seniors in the Girls' Chapter planning committee. "Well, just shows us how stupid they are."

Trini smirked. Tommy avoided her gaze, knowing that his casual tone had vanished and he was leaning toward Kimberly. He forced himself back in his chair.

Kimberly looked up, failing to notice the mini-drama playing around her. "Thanks, Tommy. Besides… when Trini and I are seniors, we can make the club less crazy. At this point, that's really the only reason we're sticking with it."

Tommy watched as Trini and Kimberly continued to argue over flower choice and design. He wished he could help, but he was completely out of his element. Kimberly knew a lot about plants, and Trini, with her art background, knew a lot about design and arrangement. Tommy knew nothing about either of these things, so he contented himself with sipping on a banana smoothie, dividing his attention between watching them and watching Jason's and Zack's class.

Yes, things were less awkward. The Rangers seemed to have grown used to him. At first, Tommy had tried to avoid them as much as possible, but it seemed Jason and Billy wouldn't allow him to do that. And it was working for the best. Trini now seemed more amused than annoyed at the evidence of Tommy's continued attraction to Kimberly, and Zack threw him fewer scowls.

During the weekly meetings at the Command Center, he didn't say much. The meetings had mostly centered on the latest remodeling jobs they'd done to the Command Center. Tommy only gave his opinion when asked, and then carried lots of heavy things. He still felt his status on the team was tenuous and provisional; he didn't want to annoy anyone.

The class ended. Tommy looked up as Jason and Zack approached. Tommy had promised to spar with Jason after class. They'd finally sparred a few times now, and they were both getting more comfortable. Jason had also mentioned the teamed martial arts expo a few times… and Tommy was trying to decide if he was ready for that. His main worry was that Zack would be pissed if Tommy usurped his position.

"Hey, Tommy," Jason said. "Look, I know I said we'd spar, but I gotta get home. My dad's been on the warpath lately, and he wants me home for," Jason sighed, "_family time_, whatever that means."

"Say no more," Tommy said easily. "You go keep the peace."

Jason smiled. "Thanks." He turned, but Tommy couldn't help but notice that he gave Zack a significant look as he left.

Zack cleared his throat. "Uh… yeah. Tommy? We can… spar, if you want."

Tommy's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Uh… sure."

Again, Tommy couldn't help but notice Jason pause at the doorway long enough to see them both go to the gym area. Suddenly, the "family time" excuse seemed a little less plausible. Tommy was a little annoyed: Jason was trying to make Tommy more included with everyone, but you just couldn't force people into friendships. And he was perhaps hurting the chances of him and Zack becoming friends by forcing the issue.

"Jason's work, no doubt," Trini muttered.

"Huh?"

Trini nodded in the direction of Tommy and Zack, who were uncomfortably sparring together.

Kimberly's eyebrows raised. "Never thought I'd see that."

"Like I said. Jason's work. He pulled a bait and switch."

"I wondered why Tommy was sitting around here just listening to us," said Kimberly. "Why he wasn't working on the weights or something. He didn't want to spend himself before the spar."

Trini rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that's _exactly_ why he couldn't pull his eyes off you."

Kimberly blushed and looked away. "Okay, I get it. You noticed."

"Noticed that he follows you around like a wounded puppy?" Trini grinned. "Yeah, most everyone notices, whether he realizes that or not."

Kimberly gave her a look. "Cute. Listen, I can't help how he acts around me. I can't exactly shut him down."

"Oh, come on. You shut Skull down all the time."

"And yet he still follows," Kimberly retorted.

"Looks to me like you want to keep your options open with Tommy," Trini retorted right back.

Kimberly put down her marker in exasperation. They weren't going to get any more work done that day, anyway. "Well… yeah. Maybe. But… not now. And I noticed you've changed your tune about Tommy."

Trini shrugged. "He sort of grows on you. I'll admit, I was a little unfair to him. I mean… monitoring his condition while he was recovering from breaking the spell, I couldn't help but feel sorry for him."

"So now it's okay to tease me about his liking me, right?"

"Oh, I would tease you if _anyone_ was acting like that around you," Trini said sweetly.

Kimberly rolled her eyes. "Uh huh. Just you wait, Trini. You'll be smitten by Cupid's arrows one of these days, and then it'll be my turn for merciless teasing."

"Please," Trini said, a little glumly. "The only decent guys at this school are my best friends. I've chased away all the upperclass creeps… finally. Though I think I've got some convinced that I'm a lesbian or something."

"Of course," Kimberly laughed. "And I know exactly who it was… Mark Peters. He thinks _any_ girl who rejects him has to be a lesbian."

"Funny that something about Angel Grove High would turn every girl into a homosexual," Trini said drily.

They laughed, and Kimberly was proud of her success at changing the subject. Trini had been bringing Tommy up more and more, and Kimberly was just not comfortable with that just yet.

Their laughter cut short when Trini's wrist communicator went off.

The effect was instantaneous. The beep was very soft, but Trini, Kimberly, and Zack had long accustomed their ears to pick up that sound. Tommy saw the looks on their faces and understood immediately. Still keeping the casual air, they made their way to a deserted room in the Youth Center.

Trini pressed her communicator. "We read you, Zordon."

"Rangers, please teleport to the Command Center immediately." Zordon's voice sounded grave.

The four Rangers looked at each other, their expressions grim. They all knew their break was finally over.

* * *

Jason and Billy were already at the Command Center, staring intently at the viewing globe. A reptilian monster seemed to be rampaging through downtown. Luckily, he wasn't giant-sized… yet.

"So…" Zack said, "lizard beast?"

"Or something like that," Jason said. "No theme, so we don't have an indication on his powers. He's just been walking around and scaring folks so far. Alpha, we got a read-out on the scan?"

"I'm trying, Jason," Alpha said, "but there's some sort of interference surrounding that monster. We can only get a visual."

Kimberly checked her watch. "It's nearly 5:00. We need to take care of this before the businesses let out."

"Agreed, Kimberly," said Zordon. "The interference is not affecting teleportation. You must be ready for anything, Rangers."

"No chances, then," Jason said. "We're morphing out of here."

* * *

Tommy felt a small thrill when he morphed with the others for the first time. The Command Center dissolved, and they were in the middle of Downtown. Already some of the businesses had let out, and the monster siren had not sounded yet. And, of course, instead of the running back into the buildings, everyone seemed to favor running down the street.

"Of course…" Tommy muttered under his breath. "Wouldn't want to be _smart_ in an emergency situation."

And then, of course, the Putties showed up.

"You guys take care of the Putties before they hurt someone!" Jason called. "Yellow, we're going after the monster."

"Sounds fun!" Trini called.

The other four spread out, trying to herd people back into buildings while fighting the Putties. It was easier said than done. Tommy had to tap into a new awareness of his surroundings. No longer could he lose himself in the fight. He had to be aware of all the innocent bystanders, try to prevent any collateral damage.

Billy, Kimberly, and Zack were, of course, handling it like pros. They were used to it. Tommy suddenly realized there was more to being a Power Ranger than just fighting monsters all the time.

A group of preteens came out of a record store and were immediately beset by Putties. They tried to go back in, but the owner seemed to have locked the door, fearing a Putty invasion. Tommy bit back a curse at the man's cowardice and ran to shut the Putties down. They weren't paying attention to him, so he was able to make quick work of them before they were even able to lay a finger on the kids.

"You kids okay?" Tommy asked, elated at his neat job in protecting them.

They stood frozen to the spot, their faces still set in fear. Tommy recognized one as the kid who got hurt in the fight at the Youth Center weeks before. They were probably still in shock…

"The Green Ranger!" the boy shouted. "He's one of _them_!" On that note, the three boys ran as fast as they could.

"Hey!" Tommy called out to them. "I just saved you! I'm not…"

But they were long gone, thankfully clear away from any Putties or monster. Tommy cursed, anger and shame flooding him.

A scream came across the road, and Tommy realized he was wasting time. He'd worry about what people thought of him later. Right then, he had to protect the people who still thought him a monster.

A few minutes later, and they were at the center of town. Tommy looked around wildly for more Putties—they tended to blend in with the gray of the buildings—but they were all gone.

"Come on!" Zack yelled, motioning them to the fight raging across the fountain in the center of town. "It's monster-fightin' time!"

Tommy joined the others as they raced across the square, but Jason and Trini seemed to be doing pretty well against the monster. It didn't seem to have displayed any special powers, seeming more interested in fighting with the two long, bladed weapons in both its hands. It roared, but didn't seem the conversational-type monster.

A few minutes of fighting, and Tommy was starting to worry. He knew he'd mostly fought on the other side, so he had very little experience with the usual ease of Ranger battles, but this all seemed too… easy. It lacked the subtlety of Rita's usual attacks. It seemed more like the attack she'd staged for his benefit, the one with the pig monster…

"Good, you're all here!" a voice boomed from near the fountain. "And no civilians. They would have been annoying."

Tommy felt his stomach drop. Goldar was here. And he could see Scorpina out of the corner of his eye. "Guys!" he yelled. "It's a trap!"

"Good, Tommy, but too late!" Goldar laughed.

The Rangers had stopped fighting at the point, looking around wildly. They were surrounded, the Putties forming a perimeter around them. The monster backed up, there was a crackle, and a green-tinted shield surrounded the Rangers. Now that they were contained, Scorpina skipped over to Goldar, looking absolutely cheerful.

"What is this?" Jason bellowed as the shield began to shrink.

"It must be a force field!" Billy called. He pulled out his blade blaster, set it in gun mode, and fired at the field, aiming straight for Goldar just in case it broke through.

"Bad move, Blue Ranger," Scorpina cackled.

The energy bolt hit the field and ricocheted. The Rangers ducked and dodged as the bolt sped wildly through the enclosed area. Zack finally caught it with his Power Axe, and the blade sizzled.

"That field returns any attack you throw at it," Goldar gloated. "I wouldn't attack it, if I were you."

"So this is it?" Jason called out in angry desperation. "This is your big plan? You're just gonna crush us to death? Sounds like a _coward _move to me."

"Oh, come on," Scorpina said. "You wouldn't think that low of us. Besides, killing you now would be no fun at all."

Tommy's foot slipped through the ground, and he launched himself forward to keep from falling. A green, shimmering abyss was opening up in the middle of the shrinking barrier… and it was slowly growing. "Guys, look!"

The others saw the abyss and backed away, but they couldn't move too far. The walls were closing in too quickly. They tried to stay on the pavement as long as possible, now too panicked to even call out challenges to Goldar.

"Enjoy the Island of Illusion, Rangers!" Goldar laughed as the first, Billy, lost his balance and fell into the abyss.

A short scream, and Kimberly fell. Tommy launched himself forward to grab her hand. Their fingers connected, but the ground under Tommy was gone.


	2. Surface Fears

**Author's Notes**: Fixed for grammar.

I'd like to thank all the reviewers, both the new ones and the ones who've hopped over from my other fic: **Ghostwriter**, **Ariadne Evans**, **Willowxxx**, **liron-aria**, **PinkRangerV** (I guess I haven't learned from Power Rangers much lately. Trying to come up with another gag.), **ae1102**, **Jnottle** (Wow… You're psychic. In more ways than one…), **I Dare You 413**, **Crazy Joe IFBA** (Now why would I do something like that? Yeah, evil Tommy was fun, but this Tommy is much more complicated.), **Dan** (Hey, thanks! I was wondering where you were. Yeah, the whole Tommy and Billy relationship sort of grew out of nowhere, but it fits. After all, by Zeo Tommy and Billy are the only originals hanging around.), **My Name is Mr Smith** (Now, you know me, and you know I always go for the angst. Fear just works right into that.), and **Kain129**.

Well, I guess this is on with the show.

* * *

**Spells and Illusions**

**Chapter 2: Surface Fears**

Jason hit the ground hard. As soon as he knew he was still alive, he had the insane urge to never get up again.

He should have _known_. It had been a trap all along. Their fights against monsters had _never_ gone as easy as that. But instead of wondering about Rita's ulterior motives, he had just kept hammering away at the monster like a big, dumb jock. Why hadn't he been _thinking_?

All this flashed through his head in seconds. In the meantime, he was pulling himself up and looking around, trying to get a bearing on his surroundings. They were in an emergency situation. He didn't have time to question himself. With a great mental effort, Jason pushed away all self-recriminations. He'd worry over that after he'd gotten them all out of… wherever the hell they were.

He was in a small clearing surrounded on all sides by thick forest. He was also all alone. And unmorphed. That bothered him just as much as being alone in a strange forest. He tapped his communicator. "Zordon, do you read?"

The communicator gave a feeble chirp, the one it gave whenever it couldn't find a signal.

"Zack? Billy?" He paused. "Anyone?"

Nothing. Though it scared Jason, it didn't surprise him. And he knew instinctively he wouldn't be able to morph. Wherever Rita had sent them, she could only trap them effectively if she put their most important tools out of commission.

The forest was dead silent. That also bothered Jason. He thought it was just the fact that the other Rangers weren't there, but he realized he couldn't even hear animal life. No wind rustled through the trees. Despite being lush and green, the entire forest seemed dead.

Jason cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, "Guys! Anyone there?"

To one side, Billy crashed out of the undergrowth. "Jason! You're here! You're _alive_!"

Jason knew something was definitely wrong. Billy was white and shaking. Billy ran to Jason and grabbed his arm, then put a hand on his chest. Relief passed over his face. He stepped back a few steps and, strength failing him, slumped to the ground. He was still shaking.

"Billy, what's wrong?" Jason's voice tightened in panic. He didn't think he'd ever seen anyone that afraid.

"You… were killed," Billy said. "I saw you. You were fighting Goldar, and I was running to help, and…"

Jason touched his own chest, where the scar that Trini's serum has not fully healed still rested, its twin on his back.

"I'm here, Billy," he said in a shaky voice. "It couldn't have been me. I'm right here."

"Yeah," Billy said, his voice regaining strength. "Yeah… I must have been seeing things. This forest… it seems to display… hallucinations…" Billy's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "How do I know you're not a hallucination?"

Jason shrugged. "Can you touch any of these hallucinations?"

"I suppose not. I haven't tried to, though." Billy slowly pulled himself off the ground. He was shaking less. His arms, Jason noticed, were covered in scratches from the forest.

"Billy…" Jason said slowly, "You've only been here for the past few minutes. What have you been doing?"

"Few minutes?" Billy said, his voice starting to normalize. "I've been here…" He frowned. It seemed to prospect of solving a problem was calming him down. "My watch doesn't seem to work here, but from the sun and my own time sense I've been here for an hour. Maybe more."

"But that's impossible," Jason said. "I mean, you only fell a few seconds before I did. And where are the others?"

As if in response to his question, Trini and Zack fell from the sky and landed on the other edge of the clearing. Billy and Jason ran to them as they pulled themselves up.

"Wild ride," Zack commented. "Remind me to thank Goldar personally. You okay?" At the mention of Goldar, Billy's entire frame had shuddered. Apparently he was not completely recovered from the hallucination.

"Time's being all funky here," Jason supplied. "I just got here maybe five minutes ago, but Billy figures he's been here over an hour. And apparently seeing hallucinations."

Trini looked at the deep forest, only her eyes betraying a twinge of nervousness. "That would explain what Goldar said: Enjoy the Island of Illusion."

"Of _course_," Billy said. "That would explain the mystical portal."

"Um…" Zack said. "You lost me there."

"Let me guess," said Jason. "We're in some alternate dimension… like the ones we searched through for Zordon."

"Precisely." Billy pushed up his glasses, clearly in his element. "Alternate dimension are normally separate and inaccessible to each other, unless you have some sort of contained portal for communication."

"Like Zordon's tube," Trini supplied.

Billy nodded. "Zordon only told me some of the basics about interdimensional portals—the parts I could understand. Some of this is so far above the best of Earth science that Zordon sort of had to use metaphors to explain it to me. Suffice it to say, other dimensions coexist with our dimension: the one with Earth and the Milky Way and so on and so forth. Now, people shouldn't be able to travel from one dimension to another. That's why Zordon can only communicate with our dimension while he exists in another."

"Wait a minute," said Jason. "Wasn't Rita the one who put Zordon in the other dimension in the first place?"

"So we already know Rita's really good with alternate dimensions," Zack said. "But if she could do this the whole time, why hasn't she done it already? Just chuck us in another dimension every time we try to fight one of her monsters."

"Because it takes a great deal of effort on her part," Billy said. "I would imagine she's taken… well… at least since Tommy's spell broke, since that took up too much of her magical power to even try anything with portals. And notice she had us herded in a specific place. They were all very careful with how they positioned us. And as for her reason…" Billy let the sentence hang and shrugged.

Trini was still surveying the forest. "I'm less worried about motivation and more worried about where Kimberly and Tommy are."

Jason looked up. "Hopefully they'll turn up any second. I mean, they'd show up here, right?"

"Not necessarily," Billy said. "I wound up somewhere west of here. We really don't know where… or when… they'll show up."

* * *

Tommy at first thought he was still dreaming. The circumstances certainly mirrored some of the more pleasant dreams he'd been having lately… except that his entire body felt like a big bruise from the fall.

"Hey, Kim." He nudged her gently on the shoulder. She was lying on top of him, and his main worry was to make sure he didn't make any wrong moves. He supposed he should try to roll her off him, but he wasn't sure if she was hurt or not.

Kimberly stirred, her eyes slowly opening. "Tommy?" she said blearily. Then her eyes widened and body stiffened when she realized their position. She pushed herself off him as quickly as possible and then, to make sure not to send the wrong message, she held her hand out to him to help him up, which Tommy took.

"Where are we?" Kimberly said. She spun in a circle. "Where are the others?"

Tommy looked around. There wasn't a bit of sound or movement except them and the waves. They were on a beach. Of course they were on a beach, Tommy thought dolefully. "No idea. I just woke up a few seconds ago."

Kimberly's eyes shifted over to him. "Thanks, by the way. I think you broke my fall."

Tommy felt like the thanks were less than deserved. He had, after all, squandered the opportunity to pull them all out of the trap before it was set. If only he'd listened to his own suspicions more. However, he didn't think it very constructive to say that. "You're welcome. Thanks for not getting mad at me… just then. I didn't want to wake up like that. I mean…"

Kimberly smiled for the first time. "It's okay. Like I said, you broke my fall."

Tommy lifted his communicator, mostly to get out of that conversation. "Zordon? Jason? Anyone hear me?" No answer. He shook the communicator, as if that would help. "It's dead."

"Figures," Kimberly muttered. Suddenly, her entire face changed. Her eyes went out of focus and dilated in terror. Tommy watched helplessly as she screamed, flailing her arms out at… nothing.

"Kim!" he yelled. "Kimberly! What's…"

"GET THEM OFF!" she sobbed. "THEY'RE GONNA STING! GET THEM OFF!"

But still, whatever was covering Kimberly, whatever she was swatting wildly at, remained completely invisible. Her screams became more incoherent, and she began running down the beach, apparently wanting to throw herself in the water.

As soon as he saw the danger, Tommy reacted. With a burst of speed, he ran for Kimberly and grabbed her before she reached the water's edge. She fought wildly; she became all fists and elbows, but Tommy held on the more tightly. "It's okay," he said in the most soothing tone he could manage. "There's nothing on you. You're _fine_."

Finally, Kimberly stopped moving, her screams turning into ragged sobs. Tommy loosened his hold on her until he felt she could stand on her own.

"You okay now?" Tommy said, hoping she wasn't just using this as a ruse to get away.

"Yeah," she said shakily. "I… um… There were bees." Her eyes shot a challenging look at him, daring him to prove her wrong. "There were bees all over me. I _felt_ them."

"They're gone now," Tommy said. Where there invisible bees? She seemed so sure…

Kimberly sat on the beach, still shaking from her recent scare. "Why did you keep me from jumping in the water?"

Tommy looked out at the ocean. "That's ridiculous. I couldn't let you jump in the water with all those sharks out there."

"Tommy," she said slowly, "there aren't any sharks out there."

"What are you talking about?" Even as he said it, he saw the tide coming in, and he knew soon that the waters would cover him, that he'd be prey to the sharks teeming in the water just now. "I count about twenty of them."

Suddenly, he was treading water. The smell of blood was thick in the air, and he kicked out wildly as he felt slippery bodies brush past him. Teeth latched on to his leg. He felt himself dragged under. He screamed, but no sound came out.

Something grabbed his arm and pulled. He tried to fight it, but whatever it was seemed to be pulling him away from the sharks. He closed his eyes, ignoring the teeth and the blood until he collapsed on dry, leafy ground, gasping.

"Tommy!" Kimberly called out to him. "What's wrong? Can you hear me?"

Tommy opened his eyes. They were in the leafy forest next to the beach. He was dry, but covered in sand. "Wha… Kim, how did you get me out of the water?"

"Tommy… you were never in the water," Kimberly said. "You just sort of freaked out and started flailing on the ground. I didn't know what to do, so I got you to your feet and pulled you in here."

"But… the sharks," Tommy said. "One of them grabbed my leg."

Kimberly looked back at the beach. "Okay, I officially don't like it here. What sort of freak show did Rita send us to? What did Goldar call it?"

"Island of Illusion," Tommy said slowly. "Illusion…"

"So the sharks and the bees were just illusions?" Kimberly said. She was still brushing her hands over her arms and face, as if she still felt the bees crawling over her.

"Pretty damn realistic illusions," said Tommy. "I mean, I literally felt like I was in the ocean. I even felt pain from the shark biting my leg." He rubbed his leg, which was completely whole.

"And I could feel the bee stings," Kimberly said. "Can't now, though."

Tommy pushed himself to his feet. "So the illusions can't harm us, then. I mean, we're not really hurt."

"But we could have hurt ourselves pretty badly," Kimberly said. "I mean, I nearly threw myself in the ocean, and you nearly hit your head on a rock. If we hadn't caught each other…"

"So we stick together," Tommy said. "We can't get separated, no matter what. And we have to find the others."

Kimberly looked around dolefully. "Needle in a haystack. Though if this is an island, we should be able to find them."

They looked into the dark forest. The forest glared back at them.

"Well," Kimberly said, rallying her courage. "There's no time like the present."

She took a step forward and disappeared.

"Kim?" Tommy flailed his arms in front of him, hoping for another illusion—that she was still there. He felt and heard nothing. "Kimberly!"

She was gone.

* * *

"Tommy?" Kimberly yelled. But he was gone. And so was the beach and all familiar surroundings. She was in dense forest.

"Of course," she said to herself. "We feared being separated… so that happened."

Immediately her mind flew to various fears. She desperately tried to banish them from her mind, but they wouldn't go. It was like the end of _Ghostbusters_. At least she wasn't afraid of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.

A growl behind her, and she closed her eyes. "Of course, again."

She turned slowly. A gigantic grizzly bear in a pith helmet was standing on its hind legs, towering over her.

"Nice… bear," Kimberly whispered.

It fell back on all fours. She turned and started to run through the forest, knowing it was giving chase. "Where's a fire extinguisher when you need one?" she thought.

* * *

Jason, Trini, Zack, and Billy trudged through the forest, occasionally calling out for Kimberly and Tommy. During rest breaks Billy tried different adjustments on the communicators, hoping that they could at least get contact between each other, if not with Zordon.

"This forest seems to go on forever," Trini said, pulling her hair back off her neck. The air was still and humid, and all four of them were covered in sweat. "How big an island do you think it is?"

Billy looked up momentarily from his communicator. "I'm not sure if we can use regular measures of time and space in this dimension. We already know time works strangely here. It could be that we're walking in circles, or moving about the island at random. The whole place seems to work on a logic of its own." He regarded his communicator with disgust. "Which is probably why I can't find a frequency that works here."

"What we need to do," Jason said, "is to figure out the logic of this place. I just have a feeling like we're in some enormous puzzle. Once we figure it out, we'll be able to escape. After all, I don't think Rita wanted to banish us forever. She wouldn't find that a satisfying way to defeat us."

"So you're saying that this place is a video game?" Zack said. "Move the right boulder, step on the right switch, and we rescue the princess?"

Jason laughed. "Something like that, I guess. I could be wrong." He got up, stretching his legs. "We've rested long enough. Let's get moving."

Trini stood up, took a step, and fell to the ground, screaming.

"Trini!" Zack reached out for her, but Billy pulled his hand back.

"No, don't touch her!" Billy said. "We don't know what's happening to her."

"Well, we gotta do something," Zack said furiously.

Jason inched toward her. She had stopped screaming, but she seemed frozen in fear. She was digging her fingers into the ground, clutching at it, as if she were about to fall from it. Her mouth moved silently.

"What's she saying?" Zack whispered.

Jason was finally able to make it out. "Don't look down… don't fall don't fall don't fall don't fall…"

"Trini," Jason said calmly. "You're right here. You're safe on the ground. You're not up high. It's only an illusion."

"don't fall don't fall don't fall don't…"

In a flash of movement, Zack launched forward past Billy and pulled Trini into his arms. She closed her eyes and froze, her mouth still moving in the silent mantra.

"You're safe," Zack whispered to her. "I'm not going to let you fall."

Jason and Billy were silent and still, as if movement would harm Trini in some way. After a few minutes, though, Trini visibly relaxed and opened her eyes. She didn't pull away from Zack, but leaned into him. Zack was a little surprised, but he held on nonetheless.

"Are you okay, now?" Jason said cautiously.

Trini gently pulled away from Zack, who looked a little disappointed. "Yeah," she said in a soft voice. "It was just… so real. The ground below me shot up into the sky. I must have been miles in the air… but I never left the ground, did I?"

"That's quite a different hallucination from mine," Billy said. "I thought the illusions would only be visual, but yours had a tactile element."

"And that makes things a lot harder," Jason said. "We won't be able to trust any of our senses."

Trini seemed to be slowly regaining herself. "We'll just have to rely on each other. Speaking of…" She turned to face Zack. "Thanks for…" Her voice trailed off at the look on Zack's face.

He was standing, just as frozen as Trini had been, his face contorted in fear. He was holding his arms out awkwardly, and his terrified eyes were transfixed on his arms.

"Zack… what is it?" Trini reached out for him, wanting to return the favor he'd given her.

"Don't touch me!" he screamed.

Trini pulled back and looked helplessly at Jason and Billy.

"Zack, it's okay," Jason said. "Remember? It's just fake. There's nothing on you."

"I'm not sure that's going to work," Billy said. "I think part of the illusion is that you completely believe in it. The illusions aren't as much a part of the island as part of our own minds."

"That's great," Jason groused. "Now how does that help us?"

Trini was still reaching toward Zack, who was still frozen in fear. "It doesn't," she said. "It just makes it that much harder." With that last syllable, she grabbed Zack's hand. He stopped shaking and his arms fell limp.

"Of _course_," Billy whispered. "Perceptional confirmation."

"Huh?" Jason said.

Trini was still holding on to Zack. "He means that we need each other to bring us back to reality. Since we can't all see the same hallucination, as far as we know, we're able to take away the hallucination by contradicting it. Zack before was able to hold me, and I felt like we were both floating in midair beside the piece of rock miles above the ground. That was impossible, so I slowly realized that meant we were both on the ground. Once my brain understood it, my senses adjusted themselves."

"So that's just a real smart way of saying we gotta take care of each other?" Zack said weakly.

"You okay, man?" Jason said.

"Yeah." Zack brushed at his arms, as if making sure they were clear. "Spiders gone. They felt like they were all over me, though. Just saying, this isn't like any video game I'd ever want to play."

Jason nodded. "So we watch out for each other. We can't get separated, even for a minute. Who knows what would happen if any of us are alone for too long."

* * *

Tommy walked slowly and silently through the forest, his eyes and ears open for the rest of the Rangers. He didn't want to blunder through the forest yelling out their names; he had no idea what was causing the visions, but there seemed to be some sort of intelligence behind it. Either that, or there was some poison in the air that made him see things.

That didn't, of course, entirely explain the disappearance of Kimberly.

The forest was completely silent: not even a breath of wind blew the leaves. Each step and breath Tommy took sounded loud through the forest, as if he were the only person on the island. Which, of course, he could be. The others might have found a way out and left him there. Not intentionally, he told himself. Of course not.

"All right, Rita," he said under his breath. "What's your game here?"

"Revenge, of course," a voice growled from over his shoulder.

Tommy closed his eyes. "Goldar. You get caught in the portal too? I thought the force field prevented that." No answer. "Or did you come in here for the fun?"

Tommy turned, but Goldar wasn't there. "Goldar?" He blinked and rubbed his eyes, but a giant golden monkey was not hard to miss. Goldar was gone. He'd never been there in the first place.

Or he was still there, but hiding. Watching Tommy… ready to strike when Tommy was least suspecting.

"Tommy, you're getting paranoid," he said to himself. "It was just like the sharks. It's not real."

A golden sword flashed in Tommy's face, and he ducked and struck out instinctively. His fist struck armor, and he felt like he'd broken his hand. There was no time to contemplate his injury, as Goldar was attacking again. He was attacking seemingly from all sides.

"Is this an illusion, traitor?" Goldar asked smugly. "Will it be illusion when I take my revenge out in your blood?"

Tommy fought desperately, knowing that Goldar was toying with him. Unmorphed, Tommy couldn't hope to be a match for Goldar. "_Your_ revenge? I betrayed Rita, if anyone… remember?"

Goldar's face twisted in hatred. "_MY_ REVENGE!" He slashed, and Tommy felt blood trickle down his arm. "I know what you did with Scorpina, you bastard."

Tommy's breath caught in his throat. _No…_

"For that you will die. But not before I have my own fun with Miss Kimmy…"

"Don't you touch her!" Tommy yelled.

"Fool," said Goldar. "Why do you think she disappeared?"

With a cry of anguish, Tommy launched himself at Goldar, no longer caring about his own life. He fought with everything he had in him… expending himself against an illusion.

* * *

"Hey, Billy," Zack said. "Are you sure four people can't see the same hallucination at once?"

The four of them sat resting on a fallen tree. They'd been walking for hours, alternating between calling out loud, with their defunct communicators… No sign of Kimberly or Tommy, and no contact with Zordon. Also no food or fresh water to be had, and the four Rangers were suffering from both hunger and thirst.

"Ordinarily, no," Billy said. "People can sometimes be convinced they see the same thing through the power of suggestion, especially with false memories, but under normal circumstances illusions are entirely subjective. That's why we can invalidate each others' illusions. Why?"

Zack was staring past Billy's shoulder. "Cuz I almost don't want you guys to look over there. I want it to not be an illusion."

Of course, the Rangers immediately looked directly where Zack was looking. Amid the trees stood a fancy dining table, covered with more food than they'd ever seen along with what looked like pitchers of fresh lemonade.

"I think we all see it," Trini said quietly. "So what does that mean?"

"That we shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth… whatever that means?" Zack said hopefully.

"That it could be a trap," Jason corrected. But he licked his lips. His throat was killing him from the thirst, and he knew the other Rangers fared no better.

"But you're already in a trap!" A cheerful voice called from nowhere. "So why not enjoy my hospitality?"

The Rangers jumped to their feet, shifting into fighting stances. "Who's there?" Jason demanded.

A short figure of a man materialized in front of them. His clothes wouldn't have looked out of place in a fantasy novel. He smiled impishly and bowed to them. "It is I who should be demanding who _you_ are, since you are intruders on my island. But you see, I have not. I have instead provided you with a suitable repast for your kind, and you treat me with hostility. I'm _hurt_."

Jason relaxed slightly. "We're not intruding on purpose. We were sent here through a dimensional portal by Rita Repulsa. You know her?"

The man shrugged. "Not personally. I know of her. Of course, I know _of_ everyone, Jason Lee Scott, Red Ranger of Zordon's Power Rangers. And since you obviously can't even use those borrowed powers here, you might want to mind your manners."

"Dude, this just keeps gettin' creepier and creepier," Zack whispered.

"Zachary!" the man said, doffing his feathered hat. "You seem parched. Care for a small repast? Though, I'd avoid the tarts. You're allergic to strawberries, am I right?"

"Okay, we're real impressed," Jason said. "Now can we at least know what to call you, since you know so much about us?"

"Much better manners. Call me… I suppose Quagmire is fitting enough, at least for your situation. Now, please, I promise neither food nor drink will harm you in any way, and you must keep up your strength if you are to survive my humble home."

"Guys," Billy said quietly, "we have no indication that he isn't an illusion, or that what he's saying is true."

"Ah, William," Quagmire laughed. "Always trusting in reason… in the cold, hard facts. That lack of imagination, of faith in the unseen, will only hinder you, I'm afraid. Come, your other two friends should be joining us soon." They still didn't move. "All right, here's reason even a human would understand. I have no interest in killing any one of you. Why would I kill you when my greatest amusement is seeing you mortals suffer?"

"Honestly," Trini said, "that doesn't encourage us to come anywhere near you."

Quagmire rolled his eyes. "Damn you suspicious mortals."

In a blink, they were all sitting at the table. They didn't seem to have teleported: they just were there. Quagmire stood at the head of the table, cheerfully preparing to cut into a roast turkey. "As I said, this island is filled with illusions, but hunger and thirst are very real. Fortify yourselves, my comrades. And speaking of comrades…"

The foliage burst open on one side, and Kimberly ran full tilt into the small clearing. She tripped and went flying through the air… but appeared sitting in one of the empty chairs as Quagmire waved his carving fork lazily.

"Kim!" Trini said. "Are you okay?"

Kimberly was still gasping for air. She tried to make sound, but her strength was almost spent. "Bear…" she panted out. "Chasing me… no fire extinguisher…"

Quagmire chuckled immoderately. "The fears you children have. Speaking of, again…"

And again the trees at the edge of the clearing seemed to blast apart as Tommy stumbled in. He was in the fight of his life… with a completely invisible person. As opposed to Kimberly, though, who was only winded and drenched in sweat, Tommy was covered in bruises and scratches, no doubt from knocking against trees and rocks in his imaginary battle.

Quagmire waved a drumstick, and Tommy stumbled forward, his illusion apparently gone. He gaped around him. "Wha…?" He spotted Kimberly. "Kim! Are you…?"

"Ah, Thomas!" Quagmire greeted. "You seem to have come off quite the worse for your wilderness wanderings. Sit, sit! Your golden simian friend was merely an illusion to keep you company."

Tommy closed his eyes, obviously forcing his brain back into reality. He glanced over at Jason.

Jason shrugged. "We don't have much of a choice. Better do what the man says for now." He looked at the others. "We're gonna have to play his game for now, so we might as well," he glanced at Quagmire, his voice tinged with sarcasm, "enjoy the hospitality."

"By the Continuum, wise leadership, if I ever heard it," Quagmire said. "Come, come, the festivities have just started."

They all began eating and drinking uncomfortably, none of them really taking their eyes off Quagmire, who was looking back at them predatorily.

"Now," Quagmire said, "I'm sure you're all dying to know what sort of place you've had the misfortune to find yourselves in."

"Not really," Billy broke in. Everyone looked at him in surprise, but he kept his glare on Quagmire. "This is a laboratory."

Quagmire clapped his hands in glee. "Very good, William. Perhaps a rather too primitive term—understandable for a primitive being—but the basic concept is sound. Now, I suppose you wish to tell me what this 'laboratory' is for."

"The study of various species under adverse conditions, particularly conditions of great fear," Billy answered, unaware of the impressed looks that he was getting from everyone. They were all still trying to figure out how to beat the illusions. "You not only learn about other species' biology, but also their psychology. That's why there is no indigenous animal life: you don't want any uncontrollable variables."

"You yourselves are the uncontrollable variables," Quagmire answered. "You can't imagine what I learn from each… species, if you will. Fear…" he grinned in the excitement of discover, "is the ultimate test. Fight or flight, you've already demonstrated, thanks to my two isolated cases. Fear paralysis… problem-solving… other, perhaps more intimate, feelings to sort through."

"You forgot one thing," Jason said darkly. "We beat your illusions, remember? We have something that's more powerful than any illusion you can throw at us."

Quagmire raised one eyebrow. "And that is why I brought you here for a small recess. Yes, I know exactly what you're thinking of, Jason. You don't have to articulate it in what I trust would be a fantastically stirring and pompous speech. You are, of course, speaking of the human ability to love. To rely on each other. To help each other, and become a force of power through teamwork and togetherness and hugs and kittens and rainbows. That is, after all, your greatest strength, other than those smashing colored leotards."

The teens remained in stony silence.

Quagmire chuckled to himself. "That will bring us to the second portion of our test. What you have dealt with is merely surface fears. Insects and sundry animals. Heights and recent memories. They are common fears, easily defeated. What you will now face, I am afraid, will be much more terrifying. For this, I have dug deep into your psyches to find only the best fears. You will know they are illusions, of course, but that will not matter. They will tear you apart anyway."

Again silence, but this time less defiant. Something about the little man made them know that he was absolutely serious. He was like Rita: he seemed completely unthreatening… until he spoke.

"Oh," he continued merrily, "and you will be entirely alone… to keep out those pesky 'uncontrollable variables.' Enjoy!"

With a wave of his hand, all six teens disappeared.

The little man grinned. "And now for the show."


	3. Darkness Falls

Author's Notes: Fixed for grammar.

Anyway, I want to get to reviewer thanks… all those who have stuck with me and bore under my evilness: **PinkRangerV** (Hmm… I wonder how psychotic I can become…), **Ghostwriter**, **Dan** (I guess something about the chasteness of the T/K relationship in the show just makes me want to sex up their relationship a bit), **Willowxxx** (I don't want to spend too much time on the Island, as this is only a transitional story to my Green Candle story, but, yeah, things will still be intense), **liron-aria**, **JNottle** (Interesting ideas… not sure what all I'm going to include yet), **My Name is Mr Smith** (Thanks!), **angelrei06** (Hey, don't worry about it! Boy, do I know about school stuff.), **LuthiSili79** (Thank you!), **Linariel** (Thanks for the fantastic review!), and **Anjirika** (I can't think of those episodes as my favorite necessarily, because I think they didn't fulfill their potential; however, the concept is fascinating.).

Okay, there's going to be a fairly big loose end by the time you finish this chapter, but don't worry. I will tie up that loose end in subsequent chapters (believe me, you'll know what it is).

* * *

**Spells and Illusions**

**Chapter 3: Darkness Falls**

Night fell slowly in the forest, casting everything in twilight. The shadows deepened and, for the Power Rangers, the shadows came to life, revealing what lay deepest in their minds.

From a comfortable armchair nestled among the trees and with a steaming mug of cocoa, Quagmire watched, waiting for the musical cries that never ceased to delight him.

* * *

Jason stared into the forest, his eyes adjusting to the lowering darkness. All was silent around him. As usual, no animal noises and no wind rustling the foliage. No human sounds, either, no matter how Jason strained his ears. He told himself he was listening for footsteps, for running, but he knew he was really listening for screams.

He was also painfully aware that, as far as he knew, he had not experienced any illusions. The only one, too. And he almost wanted it to happen already, even though he was dreading it. It was just the _waiting_…

"Okay, first," he said to himself. "Find the others. Make sure they're all safe. Then strangle the maniacal midget and make him send us home. And, whatever you do, don't think about how freakin' creepy this place is." He sighed. "Not a complicated plan, and I have no idea how I'll do any of it, but at least I have a plan."

Gritting his teeth, Jason crashed through the dark foliage, making as much noise as he could to attract his absent friends.

* * *

Zack stood at a beach, the ocean lapping sluggishly at the shore. Past the shallow waves, the ocean seemed as still as a smooth stone, and only the hiss of surf proving the ocean was actually made of water. And beyond that… there was nothing. Not even a true horizon, like in the beaches of Angel Grove. It seemed like all of reality ended in the distance, and he would topple off the world if he had the means to sail.

"Well, this is just… great," Zack said under his breath. "Stuck on Monster Island, and not even Godzilla to make things interesting. I'd welcome a monster attack… At least I know I can hit a monster… and be sure that I _am_ hitting it."

Only silence answered him. He shivered: the light wind from the sea had grown cold as darkness fell. He looked around. As promised, there was no one around him.

Now what?

As if in answer, a speck appeared down the beach, moving slowly toward Zack. Yet as the speck grew, it seemed to be running… a man, running. He grew excited—maybe the island was so small that Quagmire couldn't divide them completely. If it was one of his friends, he could beat the illusions long enough to find everyone else.

The figure moved closer, and Zack caught a flash of green. He groaned. Why _him_? Couldn't it have been anyone but him?

Zack shoved the thought into the back of his mind. Jason was right: Zack needed to put away his dislike for the sake of the team. Especially in their present situation, they had to rely on each other. As such, he composed his face and yelled, "Hey, Tommy!"

Tommy was finally within paces of Zack. He slowed down, panting slightly from the dead run he'd been in. "Thank God. I thought I saw someone down the beach." He frowned. "Wait… how do I know you're not an illusion?"

Zack raised his eyebrows. "Your greatest fear is… me?"

Tommy shrugged. "No, but we don't know how the fears are gonna play out. We could see something that's just a set-up for something else to come."

"Good point…" Zack said slowly. "So, really, I can't know that you're not an illusion, either."

The two eyed each other suspiciously. Zack knew that even touch wouldn't dispel the reality, as illusions came with sensation. After all, it looked like Tommy had actually fought an illusion. On that note, was anything Zack had experienced real since he got to this place?

Tommy seemed to sense his thoughts, and seemed to be having them himself. "Okay, so we can't know if anything is real. That sucks. But if we stop doing anything because we're afraid something is an illusion…"

Zack nodded. "You've got a point. So… we find the others?"

Tommy looked balefully at the ocean, concentrating on the water and sand rather than the nothingness beyond. "Yeah… and get off this beach. Bad things happen on beaches."

Zack let the enigmatic statement go unexplained. He, personally, would have rather stayed on the beach, maybe circumnavigated the island before delving into the middle, but he acquiesced anyway. Bad things would happen no matter where they were.

"So…" Zack said after a few minutes of tensely silent walking. "You were fighting Goldar?"

Tommy's head jerked up, his expression unreadable. "Um… yeah." He shrugged and seemed to make a brave attempt at a smile, but what resulted was more of a grimace. "Guess that guy didn't have to dig too deep to get that fear, did he?"

Zack hadn't really thought much about how Tommy felt about his former "friends." In that final battle weeks before, Tommy had yelled that they'd been friends. Had they really? How could someone be friends with… Goldar? Scorpina, he could understand more. The chick was crazy, no doubt, but definitely hot, in that scary kind of way. But… Goldar? Goldar didn't strike him as the chummy type.

"Revenge…" Tommy continued, more speaking to himself than to Zack. "I know Rita's going to try something… something worse than even this. She can't stand that I got away, especially with _her_ power coin." He smirked. "Guess I deserve it all, anyway."

The silence stretched again between them. Tommy was sharing with Zack something rather personal, and Zack knew that if they weren't stuck together, alone in the forest, Tommy wouldn't have said anything. It was like he _had_ to tell what happened.

"It was spiders for me."

The words came out before Zack was fully aware of saying them. Tommy looked up in surprise: he may have even forgotten Zack was there.

Zack shrugged, slightly embarrassed. "Lame, I know."

"Not if it was anything like Kimberly," Tommy said in an even voice. "She was covered in bees. That looked pretty terrifying to me."

Zack smiled. "Thanks." They weren't BFFs yet, but it was a start.

* * *

Trini landed in a clearing and was immediately surrounded by Putties. The forest was turned a mass of gray as the monsters circled her wildly, filling the forest with their warbling.

"Calm down, Trini," she said to herself as adrenaline flooded her system. She forced herself to breathe deeply. "They're just illusions. They can't really hurt you."

She stared at them as they slowly formed attack positions. Her guard was dropped, and she willed herself to see reality. It was just an empty forest. There was nothing to fear from an empty forest.

The first Putty punched her straight in the face. She fell back… it _hurt_. Still another one, before she could recover, shoved her into a tree, and her mouth knocked into a tree branch hard. The pain made her stomach swoop with nausea as she felt the blood from a cut lip trickle into her mouth.

Angrily, she grabbed for her power morpher, only to realize it wouldn't work. She bounded to her feet and lashed out wildly at the first Putty she saw. She heard a loud _CRACK _as the Putty's skull hit another tree. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Trini knew that didn't seem right, but she was in too much pain and too angry to care. She moved from that Putty to the next one, sending a deadly kick to the Putty's solar plexus.

The Putties grew in number, but Trini didn't care. The usual calm center of her mind was now an angry buzz, and she relished every attack. The Putties offered little resistance. She doubled the ferocity of her attacks until it was the final one. She swept the legs from under it and, with one neat movement, broke the neck of the prone figure with her foot.

She panted harshly, the hair that had escaped her ponytail clinging to her face. She looked wildly around, wishing more of the Putties would come from the trees, or that some would get up and attack. She wasn't finished. She'd poured all of the frustrations of the Island into her fury: the helplessness, the loss of control… But none came. She glanced down disappointed at the Putty at her feet. It did not move, or disappear. There was no wind to even ruffle its hair.

It's… hair…

"No…"

The word came out as a moan. She stumbled back and immediately fell over an arm. A _human_ arm, covered in too-red blood.

She was surrounded by corpses.

And the corpses had faces. Her parents. Her friends. People she knew from school. The children from Jason and Zack's class.

Trembling, she looked back at the last… one she'd…

Blue overalls and sandy blond hair greeted her, blue eyes staring from silver frames.

* * *

Billy, quite alive, walked cautiously through the forest. He was alone again.

"Hydrogen," he said to himself. "Helium. Lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine…"

The named elements seemed to bounce off the trees back to him. He had already gone through all the equations he knew in his previous sole jaunt through the forest.

"Sodium, magnesium, aluminum…"

The light was slowly dying, and Billy wondered if there was any moonlight to afford visibility. He already had to concentrate on the ground, squinting in the lowering gloom.

"Silicon. Phosphorous."

His foot landed awkwardly on a rock, twisting out from under him. He reached out and grabbed something to stay his fall. His hand brushed cloth, and he froze.

It was a tent.

"sulphur…"

The forest was changing and brightening as Billy's hand clutched the tent-stay. The light revealed a truck, an old blue Ford. A boy was yelling into a CB radio. Still more boys stood around, frozen in place, circling two figures on the ground.

In the sane part of his brain, Billy knew this couldn't be happening. He knew it was an illusion, a recreation of the scene that had haunted his nightmares for years. And, yet, it had always been from his point of view. He had never seen, as he was now, himself as a boy trying desperately to resuscitate his father.

The boy on the ground, kneeling over the man, was in tears, his already-thick glasses fogged so that no one could see the boy's eyes. The man's eyes were closed, the labored breathing already gone.

One of the boys ventured forward, eyes wide with fear. "Uh… Billy? I think he could be…"

"NO!" the young Billy screamed, pushing the boy away angrily and resuming his efforts.

In that same part of Billy's mind that recognized this as an illusion, Billy thought of this attempt at delving into his "deepest, darkest fears" as rather weak. It was a truly horrible, even traumatic, memory, yes. But it was also something that Billy had done a lot of work to deal with, with and without a therapist. Wasn't Billy supposed to see true horrors? Was this the worst Quagmire could come up with?

A moment later, Billy was on his knees, clutching at the ground in agony.

He was doing it wrong. The boy Billy… he was performing CPR wrong. He was actually doing no help. He might have even been _hurting_…

Billy closed his eyes, but the sounds didn't leave. All these years… he'd been almost proud of trying to save his father. His mother had praised him through her tears.

A wail ripped through Billy's throat, and the scene played out before again, and again…

* * *

Zack froze as the wail rent through the silence. "What was that?"

"Nothing good," was Tommy's quiet reply.

They had been walking through the forest in a silence that had become more and more companionable. Together they'd worked out a method to searching the forest, marking their place by crushing red berries and applying them to the pale tree trunks. They'd seen a few signs of passage, and they were at present following what they thought was a fresh trail as best they could, relying on Zack's incomplete Boy Scouts training and what they'd seen in movies.

"Thank goodness there's a moon," Tommy commented.

"Yeah," Zack said. "Seems kinda weird, though. I mean, I'm glad it's giving off light and everything, but does it mean that this is a planet? Or, ya know, is the moon an illusion, too?"

"That's no moon?" Tommy said.

Zack's mouth quirked up in a smile. "It's a space station."

They chuckled. Without speaking, they abandoned the improbable trail and headed in the direction of the scream.

* * *

Kimberly sat on a cushion of leaves she'd made for herself, her back resting against a tree trunk. She tried not to think about grass stains: this outfit was shot, anyway.

She was soundly working against her instincts. All of her instincts, of course, bade her trundle through the forest, shouting her friends' names until she found them. That would be the proactive thing to do, and she could easily imagine Jason, Zack, Trini, Billy, and Tommy doing just that.

There were a few things that kept her back. First and foremost, the flight from the bear had destroyed her legs. She knew she'd be feeling that run for a week. Already her legs were settling into aches, and she had to readjust her legs every few minutes.

Secondly, she knew that staying put was more logical when she was lost and people were trying to find her. Her primary objective, of course, was to find just one of her friends so they could protect each other from illusions. She could more easily be spotted by one of her friends if she stayed in the same place for long enough.

It was a smart plan. It chafed at her to wait to be rescued, essentially, but it was still a smart plan.

She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. The night was falling fast, and every imagined sound made her start. It was maddening… just sitting there, waiting. Waiting for friends, or illusions, or yet _another_ bear. Or bees. Or whatever the Island wanted to throw at her. She wanted to be ready, to master anything she had to. But she didn't know what to be ready for.

"I've got a brand new pair of rollerskates…" she sang softly to herself, a nonsense song her mother sang to her.

"You've got a brand new key…"

Kimberly jumped to her feet at the new voice, her heart hammering from the shock. Her body shifted into a fighting stance, and she scrutinized the lowering dark. "W-who's there?" she forced out, the harshness of her voice making her sound braver than she really felt.

A mocking laugh, silky and sensual, answered back. It was accompanied by the low moans of another voice.

Kimberly gritted her teeth. "Come here where I can see you, already," she barked.

A patch of ground meters away slowly brightened, revealing struggling bodies. No, not struggling. Moving together, tan skin on white, a pile of golden armor and a green shirt next to the lovers.

Kimberly wanted to look away. She wanted _so much_ to look away.

She could see Tommy's face, contorted in pleasure, but he didn't look up, didn't even seem to notice her. Scorpina, on the other hand, purposely looked straight into Kimberly's eyes. It was a horrible gaze, devoid of mercy and filled with the wild glee of cruelty.

"Don't look away, yet, little Pink Ranger," Scorpina said. "This is the best part. Now that I've come out where you can see me, I think he's going to come where you can't see."

With a whimper, Kimberly turned and ran, mocking laughs mixed with moans of ecstasy following her.

* * *

A sound—the first close sound he'd heard in an hour—arrested Jason's attention. It was the sound of weak crying. Instantly, he knew he'd found one of his friends.

Cautiously, Jason edged forward, pushing away the foliage in which the teen was hidden. Kimberly's red face greeted him. Her legs were drawn up top her chest, and she was hugging them and shaking.

"Kim?" he said. "Are you having an illusion right now?"

Kimberly shook her head miserably.

Jason pushed away more foliage so he could sit next to her. He pulled her into a tight hug, which made her sob with renewed vigor.

Minutes passed. It could have been hours. Jason kept holding her, not saying a word. He didn't ask her what she had seen. He felt pretty damn sure he didn't want to know.

Slowly, Kimberly's sobs subsided. "I'm being so stupid," she said thickly, sniffing. "I _knew_ it was a hallucination. I knew it wasn't real."

"It was real enough to you," Jason said. He did not add that he had yet to experience an illusion. At least, not any that he knew about. He was still waiting for the shot to fire.

Kimberly nestled against his shoulder, now calmer. "I hate this place. What's Rita trying to prove, anyway?"

Jason chewed his lip. In order to keep himself from worrying about the illusions, he'd been thinking of that almost exclusively. "I still can't believe she's trying to kill us. We're gonna be able to get away from this place. So… she's gotta be attacking us as a team, hoping that we'll break when we're confronted by our worse fears, or even turn on each other."

"I'd say she's doing a pretty good job."

"Hey," Jason said, hugging Kimberly even tighter, "we can't think like that. All these things are are illusions. Shadows. They can hurt us, yes, but it really depends on how we react to them. We can't let them have power over us, or else Rita _will_ win."

Jason felt more than saw Kimberly's lips curl in a reluctant smile. "Always the hero, Jas."

Jason laughed. "Sorry to be so pompous."

"I needed the pep talk."

With that, Kimberly wiped her eyes briskly and pushed herself to her feet. "What say we look for the others?" she said with a false brightness.

Before Jason could respond, Kimberly took a step and disappeared.

* * *

On the island, three Rangers—Billy, Trini, and Kimberly—disappeared in a flash of light by the flick of Quagmire's fingers. Relocated into a controlled environment, the three Rangers were removed as now troublesome variables in the test. They, of course, had been thoroughly tested.

The remaining three still prowled the island, and Quagmire watched with increasing excitement.

* * *

Zack followed Tommy deeper into a particularly dense clump of forest. "You sure you know where you're going?"

Tommy smiled enigmatically. "We're almost there. I'd say just a little longer."

Zack had no real idea what this meant, but Tommy seemed so sure of himself. And that confidence made Zack trust him all the more, so he followed the man's lead.

It was amazing what desperate situations could do, Zack reflected. He actually didn't mind Tommy now. Hell, he was _trusting_ him. After all, he knew Tommy was smart, really a master strategist. He was just made for this sort of thing. Zack, far from being jealous of Tommy's abilities, was grateful. He didn't like strategy or having to figure out things. He preferred to go with the flow and fight along the way. He wondered if Jason would consider making Tommy second-in-command instead of Zack… That was a burden that had _not_ grown on Zack through the many recent times he'd had to endure it.

"Yeah…" Tommy whispered slowly. "Seems like we're… here."

In a flash, Zack was face to face with a veritable army of Putties. Crying out in surprise, he shifted into a battle stance… only to be knocked aside by a heavy blow. There was a flash of green light in the darkness, blinding Zack momentarily. He recovered to see the Green Ranger towering over him, his blade blaster pointed right at Zack's chest.

"Dude!" Zack choked out. "What's…"

"Got another one!" Tommy's unmistakable voice issued from the morphed figure, a voice without the usual disguise the helmets afforded.

The sea of gray parted with gold, and a rumbling laugh answered Tommy's shout. "Good work, Green Ranger." Goldar clapped Tommy on the back even as he pointed his sword at Zack. "That makes all of them except the Red. You feel up to more hunting?"

Tommy laughed. "For Big Red? You know it."

"But…" Zack spluttered. "But…"

Tommy turned his attention back to Zack. "Yeah," he said breezily, squatting next to Zack even as he kept him covered with the blade blaster, "I know. 'I thought the spell was broken…'" Tommy's voice was suddenly a horrible mockery of Zack's. " 'I thought you were my friend, and we were gonna have smoothies together forever.'" His laugh was harsh inside the helmet. "Grow up, Black Ranger."

Zack stared back into the soulless eyeslits of the helmet. "She got you back. Rita got you back under her spell. That whole thing about you being afraid of her revenge was just a lie…"

This time Goldar joined in the laughter. "Fool," the warrior said. "What makes you think the spell was ever broken in the first place?"

Zack lay on the ground in stunned horror, not even thinking of escape or what was going to happen to him.

"I'll tell ya, it hasn't been easy," Tommy said wearily. "Pretending to give a damn for any of you for all these _weeks_. Listening to Jason's patronizing… Billy's _incessant_ whining… Kimberly's bitchitude… It was all I could do to keep this whole 'penitent' act up without _throwing up_. I just had to keep up the act until we could corral you Rangers here." Tommy chuckled. "I love my Empress, but she took her own sweet time with this plan. I _never_ thought I'd make it."

The rage connected. "I _knew_ it!" Zack yelled. "I knew I couldn't trust you, you… LIAR!"

The blade blaster was so close Zack's clothes were sizzling. "So, you knew it," Tommy said easily. "Whoopti-freakin'-doo. What's his prize, Goldar?"

"That depends," Goldar said in high amusement, "on what you found out."

"Oh, _yeah_," Tommy said airily. "He surrendered this one right off the bat. Or, spider, in this case."

"Spiders are easy," a voice called from the distance. Through the gloom, Zack could see Scorpina. "We've got a whole vat of them ready. Should we just dump him in?"

A hand grabbed his, and Zack tried to jerk away. They were going to take him to the vat… to the spiders… Zack was being betrayed, and he was damned if he was going to make it that easy.

A scream and a curse sounded as Zack kicked his legs out blindly. Just as suddenly, though, everything was quiet.

"What the _hell_, man?" Tommy's voice was distorted with pain. That wasn't right, though. Zack wouldn't be able to hurt Tommy while he was still morphed.

The Green Ranger faded, and then Goldar faded, and then the Putties. Zack blinked hard as his perception righted. There was Tommy, unmorphed, glaring over at him from the ground.

"Look," Tommy said angrily, "I know full well you don't want me on the team—you and everybody else—but you didn't have to kick me in the nads to prove it, especially when I was just trying to help you out."

Zack stared at Tommy, wide-eyed. It had been…

"Hey!" Zack said angrily. "Where the hell were you? While you were gone, an illusion that looked just like you pretended to be evil! I thought we said we wouldn't leave each other's sight."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Tommy retorted, his face still contorted with pain. "I only saw you once about an hour ago, when you were with Billy and Trini."

Both stared at each other in shock.

"None of it, then?" Zack said in a whisper. "None of it was real?"

"That guy said we would be alone," Tommy answered in a hollow voice. "We should have believed him. We knew he could make illusions real enough to fool us."

In a flash, the world melted around them. They reappeared in a room of white light, completely removed from any forest setting. Kimberly, Trini, and Billy stared back at them.

Tommy opened his mouth, but Billy interrupted him. "We've all gone through it, and we believe we're real. At least…" Billy afforded a rather uncharacteristically dark look at the window at the side of the room, "that's what our _host_ has told us."

Their "host" waved cheerfully on the other wide of the window. Near him, along the wall, Jason sat alone in a chair, a helmet connected to his head.

"So…" Tommy whispered. "It was _all_ an illusion. Every bit of it. The forest and everything."

"Seems like," Kimberly said moodily. "We're not even hurt, if you haven't noticed. I'm guessing we were over there most of the time." She motioned to other chairs surrounding Jason.

As they watched their still-caught leader, Quagmire fiddled with a few buttons on his instrumentation. With a gasp, Jason opened his eyes. He stared with astonishment at his friends on the other side of the glass.

"Hey." Zack pushed his way to the front. "What's he saying?"

For, indeed, Jason and their captor Quagmire were talking, and the sound was blocked entirely.

* * *

"So this was the illusion?" Jason said. "Billy was right, then… This is _literally_ a lab."

"You are quite right," Quagmire said. "Now, please, don't struggle with your bonds. I will release you after I've spoken with you."

With a nasty look at the being, Jason gave his arm restraints a good tug. He jolted: a shock ran up his arm. It didn't hurt, but it was damn uncomfortable, and Jason didn't know how many more he could handle of those.

"Like I said," Quagmire reiterated, "be patient. We have some things to discuss, you and I."

"Okay…" Jason said, "there's one thing I want you to answer me. Other than the island itself, I didn't have any illusions. No fears to throw in my face? Or did you just run out of power?"

Quagmire chuckled. "I will answer you in two parts. First… well… I'll just have to show you."

He flipped a switch, and the room disappeared. Jason was caught in his own head, with visions not his own. He watched as a young boy botched saving his father's life; as Trini stood weeping, surrounded by the people she killed; as Tommy and Scorpina writhed in love-making while Kimberly watched in horror; as Zack laid on the ground at weapon-point, betrayed by the man he'd only recently befriended; and Tommy… god… Tommy…

The images played before him, stamping themselves into his brain. It wasn't for several minutes after they stopped playing when he realized he could open his eyes.

"So why did I not send you visions?" Quagmire mocked as Jason struggled to control his breathing. "That's simple. Simple enough even for your mortal brain to comprehend."

Jason gasped for breath, trying to deal with the sights and emotions—the unwanted glimpses into his friends' private hells—all of which he had prepared. "Care… to enlighten me?" He struggled to maintain his bravado.

"I think you already know."

Jason stared at the other Rangers, their faces drawn and scared at the other side of the glass. They looked at him, waiting for the moment when he would break free, when he would overpower Quagmire and break the glass. When he would save them.

But… he couldn't. He couldn't save them from their fears, and he couldn't save them from the power of others… He couldn't even get them off the "Island of Illusion."

Quagmire's face was nearly breaking from his Cheshire grin. "You had opportunity, too. You were not bothered by nightmares. I placed you closest to your friends, so you could have found them all. Each time they faced a nightmare, you were _within sight_. That, my friend, was your illusion… an illusion you helped me with. If you had had faith that you could have helped your friends, you would have found them immediately. But you had no faith. Only once did you have enough faith, and that was too late to do anything but try to comfort what couldn't be comforted."

Jason looked down, sagging in his bonds, no longer able to hold gaze of his captor or his friends. He had failed them. He had _failed_ them.

Quagmire clapped his hands, breaking the silence. "Well, then, I believe I've collected all my data. Thank you for participating. Sorry you don't get any… tangible… parting gifts, but I think I've given you all enough to ponder."

The world again melted and reconfigured. They stood in an empty street, broken benches and upturned trash bins the only sign there had been a struggle. Goldar's contingent of monsters and Putties was long gone.

Billy checked his watch. "We've been gone for about half an hour."

The extraordinary statement didn't seem to make much of an impression on the numb Rangers.

A note on the fountain in a bright purple envelope caught their attention. Jason mechanically picked it up.

"What does it say?" Trini asked.

Jason sneered. "Dear Power Rangers. Hope you enjoyed the vacation. Best wishes, Empress Rita." With great alacrity, he balled the letter up, trying to think of the most satisfying way to destroy it.

Jason's communicator rang, making him jump and drop the paper ball. A teeny voice chirped from the speaker: "Rangers! Are you there? Please, answer! Oh, ay-yi-yi-yi-yi!"

"We're here, Alpha," Jason said. "We're coming in."

They took one last glance at the surrounding street, all of them still expected it to dissolve into forest. Then, as one, they teleported away.

* * *

"And then we were sent back here," Trini finished.

They had just finished telling Zordon everything that had happened on the "Island," taking turns and omitting all the more personal details. Jason himself did not wish everyone to know that he alone was privy to all of their nightmares, and the rest only had hints of each other's.

"The 'Island of Illusion' is known as one of the many Dark Dimensions," Zordon said. "Your connection of it with 'Hell' is particularly pertinent. This Quagmire, as he called himself, is an interdimensional being, much like myself, who has been imprisoned within that dimension. He amuses himself with whoever is caught in his trap, but he must relinquish them after a set amount of time."

"So you know Quagmire?" Zack demanded.

"We've met," Zordon answered. "And, as you all have kept some of your experiences private, you will allow me the same courtesy."

"I don't get it," Jason said. "I mean, I get what Quagmire was doing, but what was Rita doing? What was her plan? I expected half of Angel Grove destroyed by the time we got back."

"We have no way of knowing," Zordon said. "It might have been vengeance over her recent foiled plans. It might have been a distraction for you. Or…"

"She might just be screwing with us," Tommy said darkly. "Shaking us up."

"You mean psychological warfare?" Billy supplied.

Tommy bristled. "Yeah, that's exactly what I said, so you don't have to correct me."

Billy's eyes widened, looking struck. Everyone stared at Tommy.

Even Tommy seemed a bit surprised by what he said, but the set in his jaw showed he wasn't quite ready to apologize. "Look, if we're done here, my dad's gonna get worried if he saw the attack on the news."

"Hey." Jason grabbed for Tommy's shoulder. "You okay?"

Tommy's shoulder tensed under Jason's touch. He opened his mouth, and then closed it. He shrugged Jason's hand off. "I'm fine. Peachy. Just need to get back to my dad, kay?"

Jason let him go, watching as the teen teleported out.

"What's up with him?" Kimberly asked.

Jason eyed her, considered for a minute, but then shook his head. "Same as with all of us."

The five stood in the Command Center. So many times they had stood there as a team, fighting together for the common good: a common good they all understood. But today, they were alone, as alone as they'd been in the forest, each with his or her own private battle to fight. And Jason could see it. A mere half hour before (what felt like hours, of course), they'd been a united force. Now… his team was coming apart at the seams.


	4. Calamity

Author's Notes: Fixed for grammar.

I hope you're all doing well. I want to give out some reviewer thanks, as always: **Bahamut Slayer** (I apparently have a ball fixation… as you'll see…), **liron-aria** (Zordon could be of use if the Rangers would just trust him more…), **Dan** (Tommy's nightmare? Eventually. I mean, I do like to keep a little mystery about.), **angelrei06** (LOL I'm glad it was weird.), **Ghostwriter** (My Tommy is the king of brood.), **PinkRangerV** (I keep thinking of the League, but I never seem to get around to it…), **lunarweather** (Who said I was a kind person?), **Linariel** (To borrow a phrase from our Jedi, it was all true… from a certain point of view.), **Ariadne Evans** (No mysteries revealed in this chapter! I'm going to let it stew a bit.), **My Name is Mr Smith** (Other seasons? Honestly… I didn't watch much farther than Turbo. And what I've seen hasn't really intrigued me. I might launch into Dino Thunder some day, as that's the only other season I've watched, but I'm not a real fan of anything other than the original. Sorry.), **Zen'Aku Lati** (Thanks! I hope you enjoyed the last story.), **Nemrut** (Rita and the evil gang don't make much of an appearance this time around. They didn't really have much to say.), **Sammy258** (LOL your review was almost a poem.), and **Drachegirl14** (Wondered where you were… and you put the nail right on the head of one of my themes).

What I Learned from Watching Power Rangers (the return… maybe):

Buildings get torn down in Angel Grove all the time. That's okay, though. The buildings are made of cardboard anyway.

* * *

**Spells and Illusions**

**Chapter 4: Calamity**

Kimberly woke up to the sound of her alarm blaring. She lay under the warm covers, willing it to be earlier, wishing she could sleep just twenty more minutes. She'd had precious little sleep those days.

And it was raining.

She groaned and rolled over, knowing she couldn't miss that day. She had a Biology test. She hadn't studied all that much for it, so she had to have time to glance over her notes on the way to school.

The alarm clock glared red in her eyes.

7:30.

"Shit!" She jumped out of bed and promptly tripped over her shoes, landing hard on the ground.

"Spaz." Her brother was at the door, munching a piece of toast. "You're gonna be late. The alarm's been ringing all morning."

Kimberly's legs were tingling: they'd been asleep. "Why didn't you wake me up, butthead?"

Kevin shrugged, still munching his toast. Kimberly slammed the door in his face.

She jumped in the shower—no time to wash her hair. She didn't know how she was able to apply eyeliner and dry her hair at the same time, and she was congratulating herself when she poked herself in the eye and dropped the dryer.

Already she was wondering if she had time to fake sick, but she knew she already had too many absences. And there was the test, which she was sure to flunk.

A knock sounded at the door. By this time, Kimberly had put on a dress only to see there was a hole in it. She was frantically rooting through her closet for a change. "I'm decent!" she shouted.

Her mother pushed open the door. "Honey, we had eggs and toast, so I made you an egg sandwich." She put a plate and some OJ on the desk. "Eat up before you leave."

"Mom, I think I'm too sick to go to school," Kimberly said, making her voice as weak and pathetic as she could.

"Uh-huh," her mother said evenly. "Okay, Kim, school or doctor?"

Kimberly frowned and started rooting through her closet again. "School, I guess."

"Good girl," Mrs. Harris said with a smile. "Now, don't be late. There's an umbrella beside the door." She pushed the door to, just in time to miss Kimberly falling again over some shoes.

* * *

Through sheer running, with each step ruing the fact her mother wouldn't get her a car, she made it to school ten minutes before the bell. She would have teleported, but Zordon had sort of talked to them about using teleportation for non-Ranger business, so she ran through the rain. Within sight of the school, her umbrella flipped in on itself, and she slogged through the hallways, drenched and shivering.

"Sucks sucks sucks sucks…"

Throwing her umbrella in the trash, she opened her locker and propped her notebook against it, wanting to take in a few notes before the first-period test started. The pages, however, were soaked and stuck together, and the ink had run so much she could only make out a few words.

"Great…" she said slowly. "Of course. Just frickin' great."

"Hey, Kim."

She closed her eyes. Tommy. Exactly the person she did not want to see… or that she did not want to be seen by…

"You okay?" he asked when she didn't answer.

She turned around, and had the horrible realization that even while she was trying to smile tears were welling up in her eyes. "Yeah. Fine. Just great. This day is going just… perfect." She looked away quickly. The tears were just about to spill out.

She felt rough cloth against her skin. She looked up just as Tommy finished putting a towel from his workout bag around her neck. "Here, you're gonna get sick if you walk around like that."

"Thanks…" she mumbled, wringing her hair out in the towel. "Now I gotta go fail a test because my Bio notes are drenched. I…"

"Hey, Kim, you'll be okay," Tommy said, his voice warm and comforting.

Kimberly started drying her arms. "No, I won't. I'm going to flunk, and then my mom'll be all over my case, and I would have studied but Rita has been attacking all the frickin' time, and…"

"Hey, look, the rain's quit," Tommy said.

"Great," Kimberly groused. "Of course it couldn't have stopped ten minutes ago."

"So... you really want to get out of this test?" Tommy shifted his eyes down both ends of the corridor. No one was in sight, as the second bell was about to ring.

"Yeah…?" Kimberly said.

Tommy grinned. "So, you wanna skip? Get out of here?"

Kimberly's eyes widened. "Tommy… we can't do that. We're already at school. We can't just…"

"I've got my dad's van," Tommy continued, as if Kimberly hadn't even spoken. "We can go to Stone Canyon or something… We won't even be noticed."

Kimberly looked down at her ruined notes… her ruined clothes. She thought of all the extra work she'd had to pull as a Ranger. And… she thought of her illusion just a couple weeks ago. She'd been so worried about being good… but maybe that wasn't going to help her. Maybe, sometimes, she needed to not do the right thing.

Okay, that didn't make a whole lot of sense, but, dammit, Kimberly was having a crappy day. She needed a break… and the chance to spend some alone time with Tommy.

The second bell rang. "Time's running out," Tommy said, his eyes still checking the hallway for teachers or Mr. Kaplan.

"Sure," Kimberly said in a rush. "Let's get out of here."

Tommy grinned. He grabbed her hand and pulled her down the hallway, and Kimberly had barely enough time to slam her locker shut before they were headed for the door.

* * *

Rita was up early that morning, staring into her telescope. She watched as the two teenagers jumped into the van and sped out of the parking lot, laughing at their own audacity.

"Well, what do we have here?" she said slowly. "Two little Rangers, behaving badly. What would Zordon think, I wonder?"

Goldar walked in, slightly surprised to see Rita up and about. "My Empress, I'm guessing you have a plan for today?"

Rita laughed warmly. "You know me only too well. Yes, Finster has a monster waiting, and I was only monitoring for the right opening. Where's Scorpina?"

Goldar smirked. "Still sleeping. And after last night…"

"I'd rather not hear the details," Rita said drily. "But she need not wake yet. The time's not yet ripe."

"Do you see an opportunity, Empress?"

Rita checked the telescope again. Four Rangers in class, and two Rangers on the road out of town. "Certainly great potential for one. Seems Tommy and Little Miss Kimberly are playing hooky. They're heading for the neighboring town."

"The traitor moves fast," Goldar said. "I thought the Pink Ranger still had it in for him."

"I'd rather not try to deconstruct human emotion," Rita said. "Especially teenage human emotion. Suffice to say, those two can make the day far more interesting than I'd initially planned."

* * *

Kimberly lay against the cracked leather of the van's passenger seat. Alternative music blared from the speakers. She was nearly dry, and she was wondering what she was doing there.

They passed a sign: Stone Canyon, 10 miles. She couldn't help but think there was still time to turn back, and she told Tommy so.

Tommy looked a little disappointed. "We can turn back any time you want… but we'll be in just as much trouble for cutting. And don't worry about the test: Mr. Carlyle always gives remakes. And… you need a day off." He smiled. "I wouldn't have done something this drastic if it wasn't an emergency."

Kimberly thought of the trouble she'd be in later… and that just made her more determined to have fun. "You're right, Tommy. There's really no sense in going back now. Let's just have some fun. Just… I probably need to be home by six."

"Me, too. So we'll have lunch, we can take you shopping, and then head back."

Kimberly's whole body jolted. He… was going to take her… shopping. Voluntarily. A guy was going to go shopping with her. And he was straight.

Suddenly, the day looked a whole lot brighter.

* * *

"So, no sign of them anywhere?"

Trini was the last to the cafeteria table. She set her tray down. "Nothing. Kimberly wasn't in Art or Bio. And she didn't sound sick or anything last night."

"Should we be concerned?" said Billy. He lowered his voice. "Rita could be involved, after all."

Jason crossed his arms. "Not yet. I mean, if they're just sick or cutting class, we don't want to make a big scene… get Zordon or parents involved. We'll wait for right now."

"It's not like Kim to cut class," Zack said. "And if she were sick she would have called the school and arranged for one of us to get her assignments."

"But it is like Tommy to cut class," Jason reminded. "Let's just hope it's just that."

Still, they ate in rather tense silence. Jason admitted to himself that he was worried, too. Rita had been too unpredictable lately. She could very well be doing who knew what to Tommy and Kimberly right then. He gritted his teeth. If they were all right, he was going to have a talk to them after today.

* * *

Unaware and unconcerned with their friends' worry, Tommy and Kimberly ate a late lunch in a sandwich place made up to look like a faux-50's diner. They were enjoying cherry sodas, Tommy with his burger and Kimberly with her chicken salad sandwich. Kimberly had tucked her shopping bag under her seat.

"I've gotta tell ya," Kimberly said, "I needed today. Badly."

Tommy was squirting more ketchup on his plate. "Feel better?"

Kimberly grinned, picking up a celery stick. "Right now I do. I won't later, obviously, but I'm finding it hard to care right now." She frowned. "I just feel like everybody's been so tense since…"

She let the sentence dangle as she munched her celery stick, but Tommy understood. "Island of Illusion. Yeah, I hear ya."

"And then the three monster attacks just last week. I swear, I'd love to know what she's thinking right now."

Tommy gave a wry smile. "I wouldn't. I'm much happier trying to guess her moves."

"I'm sorry…" Kimberly said. "I wasn't thinking."

Tommy waved her off. "Don't be sorry. I… Let's just say I sorta needed a day off, too."

They let the silence stretch between them, some of the giddiness of the day draining away. The new tension that had settled between them—that had settled between all the Rangers—was coming back.

It had been a rough couple of weeks. The very secret, very private, very hurtful illusions were hard to bear just by themselves. Try as she might, Kimberly still couldn't get the get the sight of Tommy and Scorpina out of her mind. It mixed with the scenes from the party so long ago: Scorpina wrapping herself around Tommy as Tommy ridiculed her in front of the entire school.

And still, Kimberly wondered why she cared so much.

And then, of course, there was the stifling impossibility of telling anyone. She couldn't tell anyone who was a non-Ranger, so her mother was out. Zordon… just wasn't the type of person you told that stuff to. And the other Rangers…? No way. Not even Trini would understand. And especially not Tommy.

She supposed that was what everyone was going through. No one wanted to share—no one could share, and it was tearing everyone apart.

"I wonder what the others are thinking," Kimberly said, wanting to break the silence. "I mean, we sort did ditch without telling anyone. We didn't even tell Jason."

Tommy's eyes did not meet hers. "I didn't know we had to ask permission from Jason to go out."

"That's not what I meant." Kimberly frowned. "I just meant… what if some 'business' came up?"

Tommy shrugged. "They can get in touch with us. I mean, what are the odds Rita will attack today?"

"POWER RANGERS! YOUR END IS NIGH!"

The two of them jumped in their seats, the voice from outside deafening from out of the silent afternoon. Then Kimberly glared at Tommy. "You just had to jinx it, didn't you?"

"Well, shit," was all Tommy could say.

They threw some money on the table and ran around the side of the building. Finding a deserted alley, they morphed quickly. Kim was about to call for backup, but screams let her know time was too limited. They ran to the front of the restaurant to face the monster, who was making lewd gestures at civilians.

"Ew... Why does Rita always go for the creepy with monsters?" Kim said.

Indeed, the monster was of the creepy variety. It looked like some sort of masked demon samurai… yet with gigantic, swinging balls that were ill-contained in baggy pants.

"Ah, man, Finster," Tommy said under his breath. "What the hell were you thinking?"

"Hello, Rangers!" the monster greeted them. "I am Ballsy Samurai, the instrument of your demise!"

The two Rangers remained silent, frozen.

Then a snort escaped Tommy. He shook in silent laughter, which set Kimberly off.

"You're…" Kim said through barely-contained chortles. "You're what?"

"The instrument of your destruction!" the monster said, raising his sword in triumph.

"No, no, no." Tommy was holding his side while Kim could barely stand up. "Before that. Tell us what you said before that."

"I'm Ballsy Samurai…"

Both Rangers exploded in laughter.

"What's so funny?" The monster was starting to shake in fury, which only emphasized certain parts all the more.

"Ballsy…" Kimberly gasped through the laughter. "Samurai…"

"Man! Whatever Finster was smoking when he made you, I definitely want some of that."

"Come on, you guys! We're supposed to be fighting." The monster stomped its feet in frustration. Unfortunately, one of the parts that gave him his name got caught underfoot. "Ow! Owwww!"

Tommy and Kimberly were holding each other as they laughed, tears streaming down their faces behind their masks.

"Not cool, you guys!"

Tommy was the first to recover. "Okay, you're right. Kim, we should definitely fight the… Ballsy Samurai…"

Kimberly restrained herself. "Definitely. And I think we can take this one ourselves."

The next moment, the monster rushed at them, surprisingly fast for its obvious obstacles. Tommy and Kimberly immediately jumped in opposite directions. The monster went straight for Kimberly, who ducked as Tommy grabbed the monster from behind. This allowed Kim enough time to deliver a crushing kick to the head. Well… it would have been crushing to anyone else, but this monster was made of stronger stuff. He easily broke Tommy's hold and slashed around with a sword, catching Tommy in the chest. Tommy spun away, sparks flying. Kim tried to use this opportunity to slash at the monster with her blade blaster, but the monster was ready: he caught her arm, picked her up, and threw her at Tommy. She landed on Tommy, who was knocked down just as he'd been getting up.

"Is it just me?" Tommy said. "Or is Ballsy over there not really interested in hurting us?"

"What are you talking about?" Kim had already struggled up and was covering the monster as Tommy did the same.

"Barely a mark on me," he explained in a low voice. "And I was wide open… he could have really done some damage."

"Maybe he's a crappy monster?"

"I don't think so. I think he's…"

"Now, don't move, Rangers…" the monster said gleefully, drawing something from his pants.

Kim recoiled in horror. "What the hell is he doing in his pants?"

Before they could react, the monster had drawn a jar from his pants… a jar that until that moment had been masquerading as his comically large balls. He unscrewed the cap.

It was over in a moment. A blinding flash of light, a hard shove to Tommy's chest, and momentary darkness. Then Tommy pulled himself off the ground.

"Aw!" the monster complained. "You moved! And now I can't open the jar without letting her out!"

Tommy's heart stopped. Kimberly wasn't there beside him. Just like in the Island, she disappeared… except now he had a pretty good idea where she was.

"Where's Kimberly?" he said in a low, dangerous voice. "What have you done with her?"

"She's safe," the monster said simply. "For now, at least." The monster's voice was now calmer, more dangerous. Tommy realized his mistake. The monster had played the buffoon… just so they wouldn't take him seriously. Just so they wouldn't call for backup, or really fight him.

And now Kimberly…

"So she's in the jar?" Tommy was shaking in barely-contained fury. "And if I uncap it?"

"You won't get the chance. See you in Angel Grove."

With that, the monster vanished.

Tommy cursed. It was all his fault. If he hadn't persuaded Kimberly to come with him… If he'd just called for help when the monster had first attacked…

He ran for the alley and de-morphed; he didn't want to hang around as the Green Ranger, not with his bad PR. He sighed and collected himself, leaning against a brick wall. He knew what he had to do, but he wasn't looking forward to it. The only decision left was to call Zordon or Jason. Who would give him less crap?

He looked down and saw that it was a non-issue. His communicator was not on his wrist.

He frantically searched his pockets. Wallet, keys… nothing else.

Memory caught up to him. He saw himself, this morning, at his locker, when he suddenly noticed Kimberly struggling with her books. He'd put his bookbag in his locker, keeping out the workout bag, and closed his locker. His bookbag had his communicator in it. He'd put it in there before he left the house.

Tommy began to sweat. He couldn't teleport, and he couldn't warn anyone that Kimberly had been taken.

In a burst of movement, Tommy ran to the end of the alley, his keys in his hand. As he rounded the corner, he slammed into someone, and both went tumbling.

Tommy struggled up, too intent on the emergency for politeness. He had to drive… He had to get to Angel Grove. "Sorry!" he yelled over his shoulder.

"Watch where you're going!" the teen yelled from the ground. He looked up at his friend. "Who the heck was that guy, Adam?"

Adam helped his friend up. "I dunno, Rocky. Some jerk, I guess."

* * *

As he got out of class, Jason felt like he was getting a sixth sense for trouble. His stomach tensed seconds before his communicator sounded. He glanced over at Zack, and they casually grouped around Jason's open locker. "Jason here," he said quietly.

"Rangers," Zordon intoned, "a monster is attacking the shopping district at the Pier. People are in immediate danger."

Zack was motioning Billy and Trini over. Jason gritted his teeth. "Zordon, we haven't seen Kimberly or Tommy all day."

"I cannot locate them, and they are not responding to their communicators." Zordon's normally calm voice was edged with worry. "I will continue to search for them. It is a possibility they have been captured by Rita."

This day just gets better and better, Jason thought. "We'll take care of the monster, Zordon. Jason out."

The four Rangers casually slipped into a deserted classroom for a quick morph and teleport. All the while Jason cursed himself for not trying to find them before now. If anything happened to them, it was on him.

Tommy kept the speedometer over 80, his eyes wide open for any sign of cops. The engine whined in protest.

"Come on, baby." He rubbed the dashboard, as if it were a skittish horse. "Just get me to Angel Grove, is all I ask."

The boardwalk was packed with people for the Fall Carnival, which was just getting underway. Now, though, instead of setting up games and frying fish, the people were running from Putties. The Putties, thankfully, seemed to take more enjoyment in trashing displays than hurting people.

The Dark Samurai, a giant jar slung over his back, stood calmly amidst the chaos, waiting for his true foes.

In a four-colored rainbow, the Rangers materialized opposite the monster. They took stances and began surveying the situation.

"Ah, Rangers!" the monster called. "Took you long enough. I've been bored."

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Trini quipped.

"Billy, Trini," Jason said quietly, "you take the Putties, and join us when you can. Zack, you're with me against ugly over there."

Billy and Trini moved immediately to head off the Putties that were preventing people from making a hasty retreat. Zack moved as if to join them, but Jason knew what he was doing. He was going to maneuver around to catch the monster by surprise.

Noting the monster's sword, Jason drew his own. He attacked widely and deliberately, keeping the monster's attention entirely engaged. He went in for a third attack, but at the last moment changed to a mule-kick to the monster's stomach. The monster flailed backward, right into Zack's line of attack.

Even as he prepared to take up where Zack was going to leave off, Jason couldn't help but wonder what was in the jar. All the monsters lately had tended to hide nasty surprises, only to spring them on the Rangers in mid-fight. Jason couldn't help but feel that not all was what it seemed.

* * *

Kimberly huddled against the wall of the jar, unmorphed and not able to morph. Her arms and hands covered her head, trying to protect herself from head injuries. For the past five minutes, the jar had rocked wildly. She realized the monster was in a fight with… Tommy? The other Rangers? She had no way of knowing. She could hear yells from a distance, and she could hear the Samurai monster's voice, but that was the only indication she was in the jar and still with the monster. She could figure out nothing else.

She just hoped she wasn't in the monster's pants.

A violent jostle, and her elbow smashed into the side of the jar. She bit back a yelp of pain. She really wanted her team to win, but she didn't know how much more she could take. Water sloshed at the bottom of the jar, foul-smelling water that sometime splashed her face and prevented her from lying down, which would have been more stable.

"I Dream of Jeannie, this ain't," she groused, more to let out some of her frustration than anything else. She almost… almost… regretted pushing Tommy out of the way at the last second. At least if he was here she'd have some company. Of course, then he wouldn't be able to tell the rest what happened to her.

Assuming he'd succeeded in getting away from the monster. Assuming…

Kimberly turned her thoughts sharply from that dark road. She needed all her energy to keep herself alive in this jar. She couldn't lose hope, not now. Much as it pained her to admit that, yet again, she needed saving, she knew the others would succeed. She just needed to stay alive long enough to get saved.

The jar suddenly tipped upside down. Kimberly screamed as she slid along the wall head-first. She clung to the side desperately, knowing that any second the jar would turn again as the monster righted himself.

"Okay," she said under her breath. "If I get out of here in one piece, I'm never cutting school again. And I'll always study for tests and do my homework. And do my chores. And I'll never fight with my little brother…"

On that improbable note, the jar swung upright suddenly, and Kimberly separated from the wall and did an involuntary dive in the water below. She struggled up, sputtering and wiping wet hair out of her face. "Just someone get me out of here soon."

* * *

Tommy parked the van in the school parking lot and launched himself out of the van in a dead run. It was after hours, and the school was deserted, but he knew the doors wouldn't be locked. Even if they were, if nothing else he could morph and break them down. It wouldn't do much for his reputation or his standing with Zordon and the other Rangers, but this was an emergency.

He flew past the doors and immediately fell spectacularly to the floor. He slid along the wet, soapy ground until his head hit a group of lockers… hard. His vision exploded in stars, and nausea tugged at his stomach.

He heard footsteps coming toward him… the janitor? No… there was also the ominously familiar sound of Putty warbling.

"Hold him up," the hard voice of Scorpina ordered.

Tommy felt himself pulled roughly to his feet. His legs felt like water. He wondered what would happen if he threw up on Scorpina.

Scorpina's face swam into his vision. "Well, Tommy, seems we aren't having the best of days. Honestly, you weren't this sloppy when you worked for Rita."

He gritted his teeth, trying desperately to summon his strength… or at least reach his morpher, though he wasn't sure it was wise to morph with a head injury. "Doesn't… take a genius to plan… an ambush." The words came out weaker than he wanted, but he backed it up with the best of his glares.

"And it takes a real idiot to fall for one," Scorpina quipped back. She sighed. "Guess I should get this over with."

Tommy flinched before he could stop himself. He saw Scorpina's fist coming right at his face, and all else was darkness.

* * *

At the beach shopping center, the Putties were gone, and so were the people. Something gone right today, Jason thought. The four Rangers surrounded the monster… and there looked like there was going to be no reinforcements.

Not that the monster needed much. He was tough, and he was getting tougher by the minute. Jason could almost place this monster in the same class with Goldar for strength, and he was a little quicker. He was a little less of a smart fighter, but he made up for it in strength. Not very many blows connected on the Rangers, but the ones that did connect cost the Rangers dearly.

After a series of unsuccessful attacks, the teens backed up to reassess.

"That monster knocks over but he won't go down," Zack commented.

"Continuing the fight with our present strategy seems an exercise in futility," Billy agreed.

Jason cursed under his breath. "If we just had Kim here, we could combine our weapons. That'd give Mr. Samurai over there something to think about."

The monster guffawed, breaking the Rangers' conference. "Did I hear you mention a certain Pink Ranger?"

Ice cubes dropped in Jason's stomach. "You know where she is?"

"Oh… she's safe," the monster said casually. "As long as I'm safe, that is?"

"What the heck does he mean?" Zack said.

But Trini's was already stammering with horror. "She… she's…" Trini mutely pointed at the monster, which gave no information to her friends.

"Caught on, have you?" the monster taunted. In one quick movement, he swung the jar from his back. Jason flinched, but nothing happened. The monster was holding it like a conversation piece.

Then the dots connected.

"You've had her in that jar _the whole day_?" Jason exploded.

The monster laughed. "Just since an hour ago." He frowned. "There's no seatbelts in this thing, though. Being jostled around by that fight may have finished her off."

All the Rangers stood frozen. Trini's arms were outstretched, as if she could summon the jar safely from the monster.

"That's it!" Zack yelled, his fury connecting. He drew his axe. "I'll teach you to kidnap my friends."

With a quick side-glance to the others, Zack communicated all he needed. He was going to frontally attack the monster and kick the jar out of his hands. It was up to the other three to catch the jar and teleport to the Command Center. Jason tensed for action, his football training kicking in to catch the pass.

Before Zack could move, Trini threw herself between Zack and the monster, her arms spread out to protect the monster. "No, Zack! You'll hurt Kimberly!"

Zack faltered and tripped. He stared at her in confusion. "Come on, Trini…" he said quietly. "It's gonna be…"

"It's NOT going to be all right!" Trini yelled. "I'm not going to risk Kim getting hurt!"

The battlefield was quiet as Trini continued to stand between the Rangers and the monster. The monster was the one to break the silence. "Looks like the ball's in my court. Or the jar is, anyway. If you want your friend back, you'll bring the Sword of Power right here in half an hour. Zordon will know what I'm talking about."

Trini relaxed and turned around to face the monster with her team. Jason glared at the monster, a glare he knew the monster couldn't see, but he hoped it could be felt. "We'll be here, but answer me one question. We know what you've done with Kimberly, but what have you done with Tommy?"

The monster laughed. "Why, it's all thanks to Tommy I've kidnapped your dear Pink Ranger in the first place."

"That's a lie!"

"I _knew_ it!"

Billy and Zack whipped around the face each other, and Jason knew they were glaring furiously at each other even with the helmets on.

"Hmm…" the monster said. "Seems there's dissention amongst the ranks. Better be careful, Red Ranger, or you'll lose control."

Still laughing, the Dark Samurai disappeared.


	5. Good for the Team

Author's Notes: Fixed for grammar.

Reviewer Thanks: **Ghostwriter** (I just couldn't help it with the Rocky and Adam reference. I'm going to have more problems with Aisha, though. I just find her annoying and not very well-developed.), **Willowxxx** (Isn't that Tommy's life story?), **Dan** (Good luck at basic training! I'll try to get the next chapter after this one before you leave!), **Bahamut Slayer** (Well… as you'll be able to tell, Tommy has some other reasons to chafe at Jason.), **Drachegirl14** (They're getting there… I suppose sharing is a lot easier for some of them.), **My Name is Mr Smith** (Sadly, I don't really have an interest in most of the seasons of PR. I don't really intend to watch Lost Galaxy.), **angelrei06**, and **PinkRangerV** (Thanks for the hilarity!).

Without further ado… On with the show!

* * *

**Spells and Illusions**

**Chapter 5: Good for the Team**

The Command Center exploded with noise.

"I _knew_ it! I frickin' knew it!"

Zack was pacing almost before he finished teleporting. He was wild-eyed and looked ready to knock anyone down who contradicted him.

Billy was usually intimidated by such confrontation. This time… he wasn't.

"What do you _mean_ 'you knew it'?" Billy pushed past Jason and Trini none too gently to face Zack. His face was slowly turning red. "You can't think…"

"Can't I?" Zack returned. "Why can't I? You heard it yourself. It's all thanks to Tommy that Kim is in that jar."

"And so you _naturally_ assume that _of course_ Tommy's evil."

"And why not?" Zack spread his arms to indicate the Command Center. "We invited him to the group. We practically laid out the welcome mat… and gave him the keys. We gave him full access to us. Now isn't that something Rita could use against us?"

Billy laughed—a harsh, forced laugh. "That's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard you say. So you think that Tommy's been evil the entire time? That he's been playing us? All the guilt and torture has just been an act?"

"Exactly."

Billy stared at Zack in amazement, at a loss of words.

"Zack…" Jason stepped in, ready to inject some much-needed sanity. "I've, of course, always considered the possibility that Tommy's spell was never truly broken. That's why he's never been alone in the Command Center since he joined the team. "However…" Jason held up a hand to Billy, as if restraining another outburst. "I don't believe this is the case. After all, if we know anything about Tommy, it's that he's smart."

"So?" Zack looked ready to pounce as well.

"So, if he had the advantages that you pointed out while still evil… why would he only use it to kidnap Kimberly? Why not plunder us for all our secrets, or wreck the Zords, or wreck the Command Center again. Why wouldn't he just get that 'Power Sword' the monster talked about himself if Rita wants it so badly?"

"He would not be able to." Now that Jason had reigned in the tempers a bit, Zordon spoke up. "Rita is obviously unaware that we do not have the Sword of Power. We do not even know where it is at present."

"What does this Sword do?" Trini piped in. She was obviously relieved the yelling had stopped for now. "Why does Rita want it this badly, especially when she could have asked for it at the same time she demanded the Dragon Dagger?"

Jason couldn't help but think that was the wrong incident to bring up right then. Billy and Zack exchanged glares yet again.

"The Sword of Power," Zordon's voice fell into exposition mode, "is an object of great antiquity… older than the Power Coins. While it has been used as a weapon, its true nature is to assist in the transfer of power from one entity or object to another. Alpha and I have been searching for it for in the future, when any of you may wish to give up your powers."

"But I thought we could voluntarily give up our powers at any time," Zack said. There was a twinge of panic in his voice that Jason couldn't place.

"And you certainly can," Zordon answered. "However, the Black Power Coin would still primarily belong to you, Zack. The power would respond to you best. No other who assumed the power would be able to wield the Power Coin to its full potential… they would only be a substitute. Most magical items are like that: once given, they form to an entity's biorhythms. That's where the Sword of Power comes in. It facilitates transference, so that power can be fully transferred."

"Or stripped from someone," Jason added darkly. "Like if someone, say, wanted to take back a certain Green Power Coin?"

"The Green Ranger is certainly Rita's target," Zordon assented. "However, she could make any one of you a target, if she discovered how to use the Sword correctly."

The silence weighed between them all. Billy had turned from the group to a console, and Jason figured he was trying to locate Tommy's communicator.

Trini slumped against the side of a console. "Guys… I'm really sorry. I don't know… what came over me." Her voice broke slightly. "It's my fault we're in this mess."

"Trini, you must not allow yourself to believe that," Zordon said. "Now is not the time to apportion blame."

"What _did_ happen out there?" Zack asked quietly, catching Zordon's none too subtle hint about his own behavior.

Trini shrugged, looking down. "I just didn't think we could risk it. I mean… what if someone got hurt? It was a risky plan, you've got to admit."

"But…" Zack looked like he'd expected a much better explanation. "But there's _always_ going to be a risk that someone's gonna get hurt. I mean, we're not shooting nerf balls at each other."

Trini's eyes hardened. "So then it's just acceptable to gamble with people's lives. We're super heroes, so that means we can take risks like that."

Zack shifted his weight. "Um… yeah. Kinda. I mean, we're in the front lines of a war. People are going to get hurt… But that wasn't going to happen. I was gonna make sure it didn't happen to Kimberly."

"How?" Trini challenged him. "And, let me remind you, you weren't so ready to gamble with Jason's life."

"Because we didn't have a chance to get him back…"

"You know," Jason interjected, aware that Zordon kept cutting significant glances at him, "instead of doing this, we could be getting up a plan to recover Kimberly… and Tommy. I mean, we don't exactly have the Sword of Power to trade like you guys did the Dragon Dagger."

"As for Tommy," Billy cut in, "I've found him. I've got a lock on his Power Coin."

Billy's voice was a monotone, but Jason didn't have time to figure out what he was thinking. "If he's not surrounded by civilians, bring him in."

Alpha was closer to the teleportation controls, and with a few key strokes a flash of green light filled the Command Center.

Tommy lay as if dead in the middle of the floor, covered in what looked like his own blood.

"Oh God," Zack interjected.

"Billy, Zachary, get the emergency cot," Zordon ordered, his voice tense.

The two ran to get the cot while Jason and Trini rushed to Tommy. Jason checked his pulse, and it beat reassuringly under his fingers. "He's alive. Trini, you got any of the serum left?"

Trini was already pulling some out of her bag. "I never go anywhere without it." She grabbed Tommy's feet as Jason grabbed his shoulders, and they lifted him up on the cot as soon as Billy and Zack placed it. She pulled out a syringe and began preparing the serum as the others waited helplessly.

Billy cut his eyes over at Zack. "So he was working for Rita, huh?"

Zack refused to meet Billy's gaze. His eyes were clouded with worry.

"Or maybe the severe beating is just another ruse," Billy pursued, his harsh tone disguising his fear.

"That's enough," Jason said wearily. "Zack gets your point, Billy."

Billy looked as though he wanted to pursue the subject, but one more look from Jason made him back off.

In the meantime, Trini had finished preparing the serum. "Here goes," she said, and she injected the lot of it in Tommy's arm.

Jason watched, waiting for the miracle of wounds closing up. He'd been too often the recipient of the serum without actually seeing its effects.

Nothing happened. Tommy gave a violent jolt, nearly launching his body off the cot. It was as if his body were electrified… or as if he were going into convulsions…

"What's wrong?" Billy shouted, grabbing Tommy's shoulders to keep him on the table.

Tears were running down Trini's face, which was pale from shock. "I think his system is rejecting it!" Her voice sounded barely human. "But it's the same serum! It shouldn't…"

Tommy's lips were turning blue. His bruises disappeared, but this was no return to health.

"This is Rita's doing," Zordon said, cutting through the growing panic with his calm voice. "Alpha V, run program 3576."

Alpha had been panicking along with the Rangers. At Zordon's words, he seemed to jolt into attention. In one smooth move so unlike his usual mechanical movements, he lifted a bag from a cabinet hidden under a console and gently moved Trini to one side. Trini was frozen in terror. Alpha quietly went to work, running various machines over Tommy's body. The convulsions started to subside.

Jason shook himself out of his amazed stupor. "What's he doing, Zordon?"

"I have activated an emergency medical persona stored in Alpha. Tommy was obviously infected by Rita during the attack that left him in that state. Rita knew we would immediately use the serum, so she made sure Tommy would react badly to the serum." Zordon stared darkly at Tommy. "This may have been designed to kill him."

Trini couldn't take her eyes off Tommy and Alpha. "If I hadn't used the serum right off… If I'd just checked for that…"

Billy looked like he was going to be sick. With a start, Jason remembered Billy's hallucination just weeks ago.

"It's not your fault, Trini," Zack supplied. Zack sounded rather sick with himself, as well. "You were just trying to save him. It's Rita's fault… again."

In the middle of the room, all movement ceased. The color had returned to Tommy's skin and all the wounds were healed, though he still wasn't conscious. Alpha began packing up the bag he'd been using.

"He is resting, and will continue to rest for up to an hour." The voice emitting from Alpha was completely unlike the little robot they'd come to know. "I have removed the infection. It was non-fatal and was only activated by the serum, though he may have suffered permanent damage without immediate care."

"What's up with Alpha?" Zack asked.

"The medical persona has none of Alpha's… personality," Zordon supplied. "Alpha V, cancel program."

The little robot shook his head. "Ay-yi-yi! I hate doing that. I'm glad Tommy's okay, though."

Jason felt like if there was anything he'd learned as a Power Ranger, it was to take the freaky and extraordinary in stride.

"Let's just hope he wakes up soon," Jason said. "We're going to need his help to rescue Kimberly."

Jason's gaze met three disbelieving stares. They were all too shaken… by guilt and fear and their own personal demons… to respond. And Jason felt like he'd had enough.

"All right, guys," he said sharply. "I know today had been a crapfest of a day and it all seems hopeless. I know you're all still suffering from what happened at the Island of Illusion. In fact, I know exactly what you're all going through." Jason took a breath and plunged ahead. "I know because I know exactly what all of your hallucinations were."

That got their attention. They stared at him in amazement. But Jason just plunged ahead, hoping he was doing more good than harm.

"That was _my_ nightmare. To know exactly what you all went through and to know that I had to power to stop it all, but that I failed." He took another breath. "Quagmire wanted me to know that I was a failure of a leader, and he was right. I did fail there. We all did. But not because of what was done to us—the illusions shown to us. We failed because we let those illusions get the better of us. And that's _exactly_ what Rita wants. She wanted to weaken us. We were too strong for her when we liberated Tommy, and she's striking back the best way she can. She's betting that we'll crumble on the inside. We just have to prove her wrong."

"Couldn't have said it better myself," a weak voice broke in.

The four turned to Tommy, who was lifting himself up on one arm.

"Are you okay?" Trini asked.

"Been better." Tommy shrugged and winced as he did so. "A lot better. No more than I deserve, letting myself get ambushed like that. And forgetting how tough Scorpina could be." He sighed. "And for running off with Kimberly this morning… without my communicator. And letting her get captured…"

All of the lectures Jason had been planning seemed pointless. He waved his hand. "No time for that now, Tommy. Not if we're going to rescue Kimberly. We can worry about all the other stuff after."

"Speaking of rescuing Kimberly," Zack said. "How?"

"It would be unwise to break the jar," Billy said. "We have no idea what would happen. Zordon, do you have any idea what the jar is?"

"I've been theorizing… ever since the Island of Illusion," Zordon said. "In opening the portal to the Island of Illusion, Rita drew on power I did not know she possessed. The creation of portals is some of the most advanced and demanding magic—she almost killed herself putting me in this dimension. But now she does not seem to be taxed in any way."

"So she's getting help from somewhere?" Trini said.

"I wouldn't be surprised," said Tommy.

Jason frowned. "So you think Kimberly is in some sort of portal that Rita has created? Like the one to the Island of Illusion?"

"Not quite as powerful as that one, thankfully," said Zordon. "But it does mean that Kimberly is trapped in another dimension."

"But from what the monster implied," Billy said, "she's still being affected by things outside of the jar. We must be careful with it."

Jason stared at the Viewing Globe, his face broadening in a grin. "Thankfully, I think I've got a plan."

* * *

Scorpina slinked into the throne room. Rita was completely engrossed in her telescope, ignoring everything else. Scorpina cleared her throat. "My part's done, I guess. Where's Goldar?"

Rita waved her hand impatiently. "Don't worry about him. He's doing an errand for me on Earth while the Power Rangers are thoroughly distracted." She looked up. "Don't worry. I don't expect this one attack against the Rangers to succeed. You'll get to play some more."

Scorpina smiled until Rita turned away from her. Truth to tell, Scorpina was not all that eager for more "fun." Doing that to Tommy had not been her idea of fun. It had been underhanded and low… even more than she was comfortable with. And… she was still not comfortable thinking of Tommy as the enemy. It wasn't as if Scorpina truly wished to conquer… or destroy… or whatever Rita wished to do to this sector of space. She was completely freelance, and only fought for Rita as a favor. She had no reason to hate Tommy. It was just his sour luck that got him into this business.

"So you think they'll show up with the Sword of Power?" Scorpina asked, mostly to distract herself.

"I doubt it," Rita said. "They may not even have it. It was a shot in the dark. This is a long-term plan, something that may take months to complete."

"Months?"

Rita raised her eyebrows. "Are you in a hurry?"

Scorpina shrugged and smiled. She always preferred the more direct approach. But that was probably why she was a bounty hunter and not an Empress. "Just seems like a lot of effort to expend on one measly little dark age planet."

"My interest in Earth is secondary, I will admit." Rita's face hardened. "My principle interest is Zordon. The war ended in a stalemate with both of us banished. Now fate has seen fit to bring us together again." Her face split in an unpleasant smile. "Who am I to quarrel with fate?"

It was when Rita got like this that Scorpina understood her the least. "Oh, look, Goldar's back," she said breezily.

Goldar limped into the throne room. Scorpina bit back a gasp, not wanting to show any worry. But she felt her worry was justified. Goldar's armor was barely golden, rather alternating between red (blood) and black (scorch marks). His face was cut all over, and he was trailing a thin stream of blood. Scorpina could only imagine what he looked like under that armor, and for once that didn't fill her with pleasant thoughts.

Goldar placed a vial carefully on a little table beside Rita. "It is done, Empress," he said in a voice rougher than usual.

Rita looked at him with unconcern. "You'd best get yourself to Finster before you fall over and someone has to drag you. How is the cave guardian, by the way?"

Goldar's face twisted into a grim smile. "Worse than I, at least. He sends his regards."

He swayed, and Scorpina got under his arm to steady him. "Come on, ya big lug." She grunted under his weight, but knew that walked him over would be easier than carrying him.

"So what meat grinder did you have to go through for Rita?" Scorpina said as soon as they left the throne room behind. And why did she send both of us if it was going to be such a tough battle, Scorpina thought.

"Some sort of potion," Goldar said. "Well guarded potion, too. I'd be happy if I didn't have to fight a fire elemental for a long while."

"An _elemental_…" Scorpina's respect for Goldar's fighting prowess went up a notch. It wasn't everyone who could take on an elemental and live.

Goldar stumbled, nearly taking both of them down to the ground. "Whatever's in that vial, I just hope it was worth it."

* * *

Kimberly leaned against the wall, staring up the ceiling. The jar had its own illumination, and she could somewhat see the cork that closed the jar. She knew it was cork—a few times in the fight, she'd rested against it when the jar got turned upside down.

And it was loose.

The fighting had ended, and the monster had unfortunately turned the jar right-side up, so that Kimberly was at the bottom. The sides of the jar bowed outward and then sloped inward, making climbing impossible. She'd tried. The bruises on her knees and elbows would attest to that.

She'd just have to wait for the next fight. If she could hold on to the bottom of the jar as it was tipped over, then she could push herself downward and fall with all of her weight when the jar was completely upside down.

Kimberly fully expected to get a broken bone or fatal head injury from this stunt with the way her day was going. But she had to do something. She was already shivering from the cold water. And her mom would kill her if she was late for dinner again.

* * *

The sun was setting as the five Power Rangers teleported down to the beach. The monster and his troop of Putties were waiting patiently, the jar fully guarded.

"I see you haven't brought the Sword of Power," the Dark Samurai said calmly. "Seems you don't want your Pink Ranger back all that badly. Just say the word and I'll smash this jar for you if you don't want her."

"You do that," Jason commented, "and you'll have to explain to Rita why you completely screwed up the ransom."

The Samurai folded his arms, regarding them. "Stop playing games, Rangers. You obviously don't have the sword… unless you're hiding it somewhere really good."

"I'm not talking about the sword," Jason said impatiently. "I'm talking about a trade. You give us back Kimberly… and Rita can have Tommy back."

The monster stared at Jason.

"Hey… wait a second!" Tommy turned to Jason, backing away slowly. "What the hell do you mean, Rita can have me. What are you trying to pull?"

Jason rounded on Tommy in a fury. "Is it _that_ hard to figure out? You screwed up. Royally. So that's it. We don't want you on the team anymore, and you may as well do some good by getting Kimberly back."

"You can't do that!" Billy shouted.

Trini was holding up her hands. "Aren't we taking this a bit too far?"

Zack rounded on the others. "Are you guys insane? It's his fault Kimberly's captured! We gotta use something as ransom to get Kim back, so it might as well be him. After all…" He turned to face Tommy, who had drawn his blade blaster and was still backing away slowly, "he doesn't really belong with us."

Jason drew his sword and pointed it at Tommy. "If you won't go quietly, we'll force you." Jason raised his sword for an attack. "Go and join the other monsters."

Tommy cocked his blade blaster into gun form. "Fine… if that's the way you want it… If that's all you think of me… I'LL BE A MONSTER!"

He shot at the Power Rangers, and they scattered, each drawing their weapons. Tommy screamed and attacked, drawing his own Dragon Dagger. It may have been a small weapon, but it was more than sufficient to parry each of the Rangers' attacks. Finally, he crossed blades with Jason. Sparks flew as the blades connected, but neither budged.

"Umm… guys?" the Samurai hovered uncertainly at the edge of the fight. The Putties were warbling at each other, unsure of what to do. "Guys… I don't know what's going on, but whatever it is I think I'll need to clear it with Empress Rita, so… I mean, if you _want_ to tear each other apart…"

The Rangers largely ignored the monster. "You think…" Tommy grunted, "you can… just rule over everyone… just because _you're_ in the red…"

"I think… you need to do what you're told," Jason answered. "That's what… you're best at…"

Tommy screamed and, in a sudden burst of strength, threw Jason backward into the other Rangers. "Fine! You want me to join with Empress Rita, I _will_!"

"No one's stopping you!" Jason screamed. "You've been a burden to us ever since you joined!"

"Who asked you to 'save' me anyway? I was perfectly happy with Empress Rita!" As they shouted at each other, Tommy backed toward to monster and Putties. "And you're not driving me away… I'm quitting! And there's no _way_ you're going to survive this."

The monster and Putties stared at Tommy, who was now in group with them and facing off against the Rangers. "Um… hi?" the Dark Samurai said. "What are you…?"

"You want to kill the Power Rangers… right?" Tommy said. "You and I can take them on right now!"

The monster still looked confused, but Tommy didn't look like someone to argue with. "I guess I can use the help…" The monster grinned. "All right, Power Rangers! Prepare for your doom!"

* * *

Rita had been studying the phial of potion and had lost track of time. She suddenly looked up and cursed. The fight had been going on for five minutes.

She ran to the telescope and quickly caught up. Her face contorted with fury.

"You idiot!" she screamed, loud enough for the monster on the ground to hear in his head. "They're _lying_ to you!"

* * *

But it was too late. The monster had turned his back on Tommy for a few seconds, and that was as long as it took for Tommy to get his hands on the jar and pull the cork.

"No!" the monster screamed.

Tommy was laughing. "Oh, by the way… Psych!"

Smoke was pouring from the jar, and then the smoke slowly turned pink. After half a minute, the smoke cleared, revealing Kimberly, who was fully morphed and looked thoroughly pissed off. In one smooth move, she drew her bow and shot several bolts at the monster, who started making a hasty retreat.

"You utter _freak_!" she yelled. "Do you realize my clothes are completely _ruined_ now? And how exactly are you going to pay for my dry cleaning?"

The other Rangers ran to join her. "Good to have you back, Kim," Jason said. "Now let's bring 'em together!"

Tommy watched, not without a little envy, as the five Rangers formed their weapons into one unit and shot the monster into oblivion. As an afterthought, Tommy smashed the jar on the ground. It shattered, and the pieces disintegrated.

* * *

The Power Rangers sat in the woods around a crackling campfire. It was the weekend after the fight with the Samurai monster, and Tommy and Kimberly were just now getting the chance to share the earlier part in the adventure. The others were laughing riotously.

"Seriously!" Zack choked out, laughing so hard his marshmallow fell in the fire. "Ballsy Samurai? He actually said that."

"He was dead serious, too," Tommy said.

"I think the most horrifying part," Kimberly giggled, "was when he started reaching into his pants. I mean… I know now he was going for the jar, but…"

Laughter rang into the woods, startling a few birds in the trees. Jason was glad to hear them. These woods were so unlike the ones in the fake Island. There were animals, and noises, and everything seemed friendlier.

As the laughter started dying down, Jason took a breath and prepared himself. He hoped the woods would remain friendly after he said what he had to say.

"Guys, I bet you're wondering why I asked you all out here."

The blank and confused looks Jason was expecting did not come. Instead, the other Rangers grinned at each other, as if sharing a private joke.

"Not really," Zack said.

Kimberly rolled her eyes. "I mean, it's pretty obvious, mystery man."

Jason stared at them, a bit confused himself.

Billy took a breath. "I suppose I will volunteer to go first. My hallucination was of the day my father died…"

One by one, they shared. It wasn't easy. Each stuttered over words, avoided each others' gazes… But the group was there for them. The hallucinations—their deepest fears—were no longer a burden or a secret.

Kimberly, though, had the hardest time. She kept her eyes firmly on the fire as she spoke. She didn't go into a great amount of detail, and she was extremely aware of Tommy looking at her. She just couldn't look back at him.

"I'm sorry," Tommy said in a low voice after Kimberly had finished. "I… I did that to you."

Trini, unnoticed by everyone else, studied Tommy carefully. She had her suspicions about him and Scorpina.

Tommy smiled bitterly. "I don't blame you, or Zack, or anyone else for not trusting me. While I was under the spell, I made damn sure none of you had any reason to trust me. I made relationships with all of you… so that I could hurt you. I don't deserve the kindness you all have shown me."

Kimberly could finally look up to see him. Tommy was now staring into the fire, and that haunted look from the days after the spell had broken returned to his face, as if he were reliving again everything he'd done.

"I've been pushing you all away, and that's stupid," Tommy continued. "Ever since the Island of Illusion. It was because I was afraid…" He cleared his throat. "You actually all saw my hallucination. It was… how Jason made his plan. We used the exact words… not really the same circumstance, but the setup was that I'd screwed up, and you all were selling me back to Rita. In the hallucination, though, Jason almost killed me."

"I'm really sorry about that," Jason interrupted. "I mean… about using that as the plan. I knew I'd hurt you when I thought of it, but…"

Tommy waved his hand in an easy manner, his eyes finally breaking from the fire. "I told you at the time it was okay. I meant it. It… it actually helped me, acting it out. It showed me how freakin' ridiculous that hallucination was. I mean, why the hell would you all sell me to Rita? Yeah, I'd see take away my powers, but why give Rita another weapon?"

"I hope you don't think that is the only reason your hallucination is ridiculous," Billy said.

Tommy looked down. "I know."

They continued in silence, listening to the crackling of the fire.

"Rita has failed tonight," Jason said. "She wanted to throw division into our team. She hasn't. What she's done has only made us stronger. We've faced our fears, and now we know those fears can't defeat us."

Trini giggled. "Okay, now he's going into 'heroic speech' mode."

"Okay, Billy, pay up," Zack said. "I called five minutes after we'd shared our fears before you started speechifying. Billy thought you'd wait until at least ten."

Jason laughed. "You guys can joke, but what I said is all true."

"We know, Jason," Kimberly said. "That's why we joke."

After an hour, they were packing up Tommy's van to go home. They laughed and talked, the weights lifted between them. The awkwardness of the past couple weeks seemed ridiculous.

Jason helped Kimberly put out the fire. "So… jokes aside," Jason said in an undertone. "Things are okay, right? I mean, between you and Tommy?"

Kimberly sighed. "I… I don't really know what there is between me and Tommy. I mean, I know there's something, but…" She looked up suddenly and grinned. "Yes, as far as you need to know, everything is fine between me and Tommy."

Jason laughed. "Point taken. After all, I wouldn't want to go into lecture-mode."

She grinned. "That's why we joke."

Jason made double-sure the fire was out, and turned to get in the van. He happened to catch a glimpse of Tommy. Jason looked again, but Tommy was getting into the driver's seat. Yet for a minute, Jason could have sworn Tommy had been staring at him… and not in a way Jason liked.

Jason was the last to be dropped off. There was tense silence in the van as they drove from Trini's house to Jason's.

"Tommy…" Jason started. "You're… you're sure you're alright with me using your hallucination like that. I mean…"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Tommy said. But there was something in his voice…

"Because I know I crossed a line…"

"I _said_ I was fine," Tommy snapped. "I'm just… Worries at home, okay?"

They pulled up to Jason's house, and Jason got out. He looked back at Tommy, who seemed determined to avoid any eye contact. Jason frowned as Tommy drove off. Somehow, he didn't buy Tommy's excuse. He had the disturbing idea that Tommy had a problem… with him, specifically.

* * *

"Oh, yes, that's just perfect," Rita mumbled as the telescope followed Tommy home. Tommy looked angry over something, and Rita had finally figured out what it was. "That will make a perfect third phase."

Goldar walked into the throne room. He could finally walk without limping, though the scars had yet to fade from his fight. "You wanted to see me, Empress Rita?"

"Yes, Goldar." Rita put away the telescope and sat at the planning table. "I supposed that since you worked so hard to obtain the key ingredient of the next few plans, you should have a hand in planning them."

"And Scorpina?"

Rita frowned. Ever since she had come, Scorpina was more and more included in her plans. And yet… Rita could not forget that she did not completely employ Scorpina. She was a friend, not a minion. And her loyalties could not be as depended upon as Goldar's. "Scorpina has shown a certain… reluctance… in fighting Tommy. Oh, she does as I ask, but since the Green Ranger is one of our primary objectives, I would feel better if she were not included in planning."

Goldar's face remained impassive. Rita smiled. She knew it would be this way for him: business was business, and his personal feelings for Scorpina did not fit into the equation.

Rita motioned Goldar to a chair. "I bet you're wondering…" Rita said in barely-controlled excitement, "what the potion is that you risked your life over."

"On the edge of my seat, Empress," he said. "Literally, with these tiny chairs."

"This potion," she said, "is a Proto-Potion."

Goldar stared blankly.

Rita was a little annoyed. "Honestly, Goldar, you know nothing of history. This potion is one of the surviving potions created by the primordial wizards. This is the stuff that dreams… and nightmares… are made of."

Goldar was still unimpressed. "So what does it do, Empress?"

Rita sighed. "Ever the pragmatist. What it _does_, and this is only the basest of its uses, is to bolster the power of any potion without requiring any extra magic for the wizard… or witch, in this case. Well… I say _any_ potion, but since this potion is a Fire Proto-Potion, it's most effective in potions inciting the passions. Any passions… or strong emotions."

Goldar cocked his head, looking at the potion with new respect. "I believe I see where you're going with this, Empress."

Rita smirked. "I should hope so, since I spelled it out for you. But enough of that. Tell me… what do you think of Tommy's behavior lately?"

Goldar frowned. "I try not to. I heard what he did… He and those other pretenders to power playing at what is painful."

"You know," Rita commented, "when you get angry you get alliterative."

"What?"

Rita waved her hand. "Never mind. The point I'm trying to make is… I believe there is still some tension between Tommy and the Red Ranger. Something that was _not_ resolved by their little hug-and-cry meeting tonight."

Goldar reluctantly began to think about Tommy's behavior. "I suppose… They are both natural leaders. I always sensed some rebellion in Tommy… not from the spell, but from being under an authority figure." He smirked. "Had to knock some sense into the boy a few times… literally."

"That is one component," Rita granted. "And not an unimportant one. But the underlying problem… well… I suppose it takes a woman to notice."

Rita laughed at Goldar's again blank stare. "Don't worry, I'll explain everything. For now, we plan. We attack next week, just to make sure you're completely healed and I'm completely replenished. Even with the Proto-Potion, this will take some finesse, and a lot of energy."

* * *

What Tommy Saw

The Island of Illusion was deadly silent. Tommy was walking slowly through the forest, eyes and ears open for any sign of his friends… or his enemies.

His sweat was cooling, a remembrance of his foolish fight with "Goldar." Goldar had not been there, of course, and he had on some level known that. The hallucinations were just so real. Even now, he knew he couldn't know if any friend who he met was really an illusion.

Truth to tell, at the moment, he hadn't cared if Goldar was an illusion or not. Just the idea that he had hurt Kimberly… The thought of it still sent Tommy into rage and despair.

When had he started caring so much about her? They'd known each other for less than two months. Of course, he'd learned to make friends quickly or not at all in his nomadic lifestyle. Yet with Kimberly… there was something there. Maybe it was that she was unlike any other girl he'd dated. He'd always gone for the dark, dangerous types. Kimberly, while being a Power Ranger added a few danger points, was not that type of girl. She was laughter and light.

Okay… he was falling into pseudo-poetic language, and he was thinking about her when he was in real danger. Yes, he knew he was falling for her.

But what claim did he really have on her? None, as far as he could see. They had gone on one date… a date he had used against her, since he was evil at the time. She had rebuffed his advances after the spell was broken. And… she was one of the most popular girls in school. All the guys went after her, and they weren't all losers like Skull. There was some pretty nasty competition for Kimberly's affections. Not that Tommy was afraid of competition, but that wasn't exactly how to go about getting a girl to like you.

But, past all that common sense, Tommy knew he had to try with Kimberly. He knew if he didn't, he'd be tearing a hole in his chest. More and more, Kimberly was what he thought about when he wanted to quiet his brain.

He heard sobbing and low voices. Kimberly… he knew it was Kimberly. She was in pain. And… who was with her?

Tommy turned a corner and then pulled back quickly. He softly retreated into the foliage.

Jason was with Kimberly, and she was sobbing into his arms as he held her tight.

"It was real enough for you."

"I hate this place," Kimberly sniffed. "What's Rita trying to prove, anyway?"

They said something Tommy couldn't make out.

Kimberly's lips curled in a smile. "Always the hero, Jas."

Jason laughed. "Sorry to be so pompous."

"I needed the pep talk."

Tommy's eyes narrowed. As quietly as he could, he left the two to their… intimate moment.

Jason was the hero. Jason got the girl. It was as simple as that. And the next time Tommy saw Jason, he didn't wait to tell if it was an illusion or not. He attacked.


	6. Rivals

Author's Notes: Grammar fixed.

Reviewer Thanks: **alias093001** (You hit the nail right on the head, there.), **Willowxxx **(At least we'll have fun.), **angelrei06 **(That idea belongs to my husband. I honestly didn't see that twist myself.), **My Name is Mr Smith**, **PinkRangerV **(What's UST?), **Julian Carax **(I can't see Tommy as all that selfless right now, especially about Kimberly. He has to learn that selflessness.), **liron-aria**, **Dan** (See… I could do it.), and **Ghostwriter**.

* * *

**Spells and Illusions**

**Chapter 6: Rivals**

Billy pulled up into the driveway to Tommy's house and killed the engine. "You sure your Dad won't mind?"

Tommy shrugged. "We can't work at the Youth Center or the Command Center, what with Zordon's top-secret work and the Cheerleader fundraiser. It's either your house or my house. And we have more room at mine."

Billy wasn't listening. He was staring straight ahead, looking dumbfounded.

"Uh… what's wrong?" Tommy asked.

Billy turned his head slowly to Tommy. "I think that's my mom's car."

Tommy's eyes flew open. "Your mom gave my dad her number in case of emergencies. You don't think…" His voice trembled.

As one, they threw themselves out of the car and rushed to the front door, pushing past each other in their haste. Tommy's heart was pounding as he imagined worse and worse scenarios. It was like a nightmare made real… again.

"I hear something in the kitchen," Billy said in a frightened whisper. They ran for the kitchen, ready to do anything they could to help.

Sylvia, Billy's mother, was bent over John as he lay back in his wheelchair. Tommy thought at first she was trying to resuscitate him.

"Um… Mom?" Billy said weakly.

In an instant, Tommy realizes she was not trying to resuscitate his father. They were…

Sylvia straightened, her eyes wide from surprise. Her blouse was unbuttoned. She blushed, turned around quickly, and hastily started buttoning.

"Boys…" she said in a shaky voice. "I… I didn't know you were coming here."

"Obviously," John said. He didn't look embarrassed at all. He looked like he was trying to keep from laughing.

Tommy and Billy stood frozen, their mouths still hanging open.

Sylvia turned around, an odd smile on her face. "So… who wants a snack?" she said primly. Her buttons were askew.

A few minutes later, the four of them sat around the dining room table, munching on a fruit and veggie tray that Sylvia seemed to have conjured from midair. The crunching filled the silence awkwardly.

"So…" John said brightly. "How was school, boys?"

Tommy, Billy, and even Sylvia just stared at him. John looked down, paying close attention to his celery.

"How long?" Billy said.

"And, more importantly, why couldn't you tell us sooner?" Tommy said. "Why the big secret?"

John's and Sylvia's eyes locked, and Tommy recognized the tell-tale signs of silent communication, like each knew exactly what the other was thinking. Yup. They were in love.

"We met at the hospital, of course," John said.

Sylvia had taken John's hand, seemingly unconsciously. "And we've been seeing each other since then. And we _were_ going to tell you. We just…"

"Thought you both would react badly," John finished for her.

"Like you are now," Sylvia concluded.

"We're not reacting badly," Billy said. "We're just… really really surprised."

Tommy nodded, as if slowly driving away the cobwebs. "We just need to get used to the idea. After all," he smiled, "it's not exactly up to us."

Sylvia shifted uncomfortably. "We just didn't want you two to think we were trying to replace…"

"Who… Mom?" Tommy interrupted. "That's fine. Replace her anytime."

Sylvia, however, had been mainly looking at Billy.

Billy looked her in the eyes (for the first time since her blouse was unbuttoned). "Mom, Dad's been gone a long time. I'll be leaving for college in a few years. I… just want you to be happy."

They said other things, though Tommy didn't remember them. They weren't important. He was aware of dinner plans for the four of them for next week.

Billy and Tommy left, still needing to work on a school project. They could hear their parents' low voices as they left.

"Well, that was…" Billy started.

"Weird."

"That's what I was going to say. Weird."

"And you had no clue?" Tommy asked.

"None whatsoever. You?"

"I knew he was up to something." Tommy glanced at his watch. "Fundraiser should be over by now. We can work in the Youth Center."

They got in the car. It was a silent drive. The fact of their parents' seeing each other… They wanted to talk about it, but didn't want to talk about it, but didn't not want to talk about it, and didn't want to talk about anything else.

For Tommy, there was an added level. The last time he'd seen Billy's mother was when he'd terrorized her and tied her up in the bathroom. Thankfully, he hadn't done more than that—he had been saving all his cruelty for Billy. But he'd done enough to her. What if she recognized him? What if his dad let something slip? How would she react?

The flashbacks of his time as the Green Ranger came more and more infrequently, but the reality was still there. He still had to face people he'd hurt, both as himself and as the Green Ranger, every day. And now his father was dating one of them.

He set his teeth. Well, if Billy could handle it, he could too.

"It is weird, though," Billy said out of the blue.

"Huh?"

Tommy noticed for the first time Billy's smile was a little forced. "Strange, you know? Them getting together. Especially under those circumstances."

Tommy's stomach froze. Could it be… that Billy was remembering what Tommy had done to him… to his mother… just like he was? Could it be Billy had a problem with it?

"You know," Billy said quietly. "In the hospital."

Tommy was afraid to say anything. Afraid that he understood exactly what Billy was saying. "So…" he managed, "you're not okay with this?" The words came out a little harsher than he meant.

"It's not that," Billy protested. "After all, you said that we didn't have a choice in the matter."

"But if we did," Tommy pushed.

They were at the Youth Center. Billy pulled into a parking space but left the engine running. "Well…" Billy was gritting his teeth, the fake smile cracking. "I mean… I'm happy my Mom has found someone, but… after what happened with my Dad, I just thought she would find someone…" He shook his head. "No… it's nothing. Let's just get to this project."

Tommy's heart was beating fast. "Find someone what? Rich? Young?" He stared hard at Billy, who wouldn't look at him. "What is it?"

"Healthy…"

Billy said the word so softly that it barely reached over the sound of the engine. Tommy heard it, though, and it hit him just as hard as if Billy had shouted it to him.

Tommy threw the door open and got out of the car.

"Tommy! Wait!"

Tommy rounded on Billy. "What do you mean… 'healthy'?"

Billy looked scared. "I'm sorry… I didn't mean…"

"Oh, you meant," Tommy cut him off. "You meant every word. And I'll have you know that Dad's doing better than he has in years."

"I don't doubt that, but…"

"It's not like my Dad's going to drop dead any day now!"

They were drawing a minor crowd, all people leaving the fundraiser. Kimberly, in her cheerleading uniform, pushed her way to the front and then hovered at the edge, uncertain of what to do.

"Tommy, we both thought something was wrong with him when we got to your house!" Billy was starting to get angry now. "I just don't want my mother to start something with someone only to lose him again."

Tommy was trembling with anger. "You know what? You can handle the project. I quit. After all, I might have to arrange a funeral any minute now!"

Tommy pushed his way through the crowd, completely missing Kimberly. He just wanted to hit something, and he knew he'd better get to the punching bag soon.

Billy was pale, staring after Tommy and completely missing all the people staring at him. Not wanting to follow Tommy, he got back in his car and drove away.

Kimberly considered between the two, her mind frantically putting together all the new information. Billy's mom and Tommy's dad going out. Whoa. That was something new. A little ew-worthy, since they were so old, but moving on. Billy had said something that made Tommy upset… something about Tommy's dad being too sick to date his mom. Understandable, considering his own father, if hurtful. And she was friends with both of them. Billy would probably be easier to talk to, since she knew Tommy was probably going ballistic on a punching bag. However… Tommy sounded like he needed the help more.

In the Youth Center, Jason, Trini, and Zack were staring at Tommy and seemed completely unwilling to approach him. It looked like he was doing his best to knock the punching bag from the ceiling. Kimberly joined them, not a little for moral support.

"Um… Kim?" Zack said. "Did Tommy go crazy all of the sudden?"

"Or does he just really hate that punching bag?" Jason said.

In a low voice, though she figured Tommy couldn't hear, she summed up what she'd seen outside.

"Tommy's dad… and Billy's mom?" Trini said. "But… they're old."

"I know… right?" Kimberly said.

"Billy was out of line, though," Zack said. "I mean, he sort of said that his dad was at death's door… You just don't do that."

"Yeah, but Tommy didn't have to go ballistic like that," Jason said. "I'm going to talk to him."

Kimberly had been staring at Tommy, trying to get up the courage to approach him, when she noticed Jason walking over. "No… wait!" she said in a loud whisper. It was too late, though. Jason was already there.

Trini slumped in her chair. "This isn't going to be pretty."

Zack just stared glumly. "If they start fighting, I'm going to have to come between them, aren't I?"

Jason held on to the other side of the punching bag, steadying it. He was almost knocked off his feet by Tommy's roundhouse kick. "Mind if we talk?"

Tommy stopped attacking. "What's on your mind?" His voice was unreadable.

"Listen… I heard what happened between you and Billy," Jason said, trying to make his voice soothing. "Dude, I'm sure Billy didn't mean what he said. If you just go talk to him…"

Tommy's eyes narrowed. "You know what? I'm not sure if this is any of your business." He grabbed his towel and turned to go to the weight machines.

Jason followed him, keeping his voice low. "Excuse me?"

"This is between me and Billy," Tommy said. "It's not up to you to solve all our problems."

Jason crossed his arms. "When two members of the team are angry at each other, it's my business." He let his arms fall. "Listen, bro, we just got this team back together. I'm not going to let it fall apart again."

Tommy threw down his towel, yet he still kept his voice quiet. "Sorry if my personal life is endangering the team. But maybe you should take a good look at your own role in the team if a little argument is enough to tear the team apart."

Jason opened his mouth angrily, but at that moment his communicator beeped. Jason and Tommy looked at each other, each wanting to continue the argument, but the communicator beeped again and Zack, Kimberly, and Trini were already casually walking out of the door. Not able to affect casual in their tempers, Jason and Tommy followed.

* * *

They didn't realize they'd been closely watched, though.

"You see what I saw, Skull?" Bulk said quietly.

Skull was chewing his way through a tin of Bubble Tape, working on a bet that he couldn't get the whole package in his mouth. "What did you shee… er… shaw…" He swallowed enormously. "What did you see-saw, Bulky?"

Bulk was staring at him. "Dude, did you just swallow that whole thing?"

"Yah."

"You know that takes five years to digest."

Skull shrugged. "I do it all the time."

"They're gonna have to cut that out with a scalpel."

"Speaking of surgery," Skull said, "my cousin Femur…"

"Never mind," Bulk said quickly. "My point is… did you see that whole thing with Tommy?"

Skull's face darkened. He hadn't said much, but Bulk knew Skull was really upset now that Tommy had started hanging around Kimberly.

Bulk forged ahead anyway. "Tommy and Jason totally looked like they were going to fight. That might even be what they're doing right now."

* * *

Another group of magical spears flew by the Power Rangers' heads. Tommy and Jason ducked, practically racing each other to be the first to fight the monster.

* * *

Skull shrugged. "I dunno. Don't those karate types live by some kind of code… like a samurai or a ninja or something? Something that makes them not fight each other?"

"Look," Bulk said impatiently. "Even if that's true, they're _not_ samurai or anything. Sooner or later, they'll get mad enough at each other that they will fight… and that's where we come in."

Skull raised his hand, as if to make a point, and then lowered it, and then raised it, and lowered it again. "But… Bulky. You tried to learn karate months ago. You had to wear an ankle brace for…"

"I'm not talking about us fighting, nimrod," Bulk interrupted. "I'm talking about a financial opportunity."

"Oh!" Skull said, and then frowned. "I still don't get it."

Bulk rolled his eyes. "Look, Tommy and Jason are the best fighters in the school, right? They came out a draw in the Expo when Tommy first moved here, and a lot of people want to see a rematch, right?"

"I guess," Skull said uncertainly. "But…"

"So, we _provide_ that rematch," Bulk said excitedly. "We arrange the place, sell the tickets, 'referee' the match… Only it won't be like the Expo, where the fight's over in a few minutes. Fewer rules… better fight. We'll call it…" He put his arms up, as if spreading a banner. "Grudge match of the century: duel to the death!"

Skull started on another container of Bubble Tape. "But it won't be to the death."

Bulk rolled his eyes. "I _know_ that, genius. That's just a jazzy name… sells more tickets."

"Oh!" Skull frowned. "Bulky, you sure about this? It sounds…"

"Listen, Skull," Bulk said earnestly. "What have we been dreaming about since we were ten?"

"I don't know about you, but I've always had this dream about being a wizard and turning everyone into pickles…"

"I mean the _car_!" Bulk said.

Skull's eyes went out of focus. "The car…"

"Chick-magnet."

"With a fully-loaded sound system."

"Black and red."

"With a skull painted on it."

"We're not painting a skull on it. We've been over this for five years."

"But then it won't be the Skullmobile."

Bulk grabbed Skull's shirt collar. "Do you realize how many chicks we can get with the right car? And all we have to do is organize one fight. We'd be able to make a down-payment just with ticket sales." Bulk grinned. "And that's not counting the betting pool."

Skull gulped, visualizing himself and Bulk in a black convertible with a skull painted on the hood, surrounded by beautiful women. "I'm in."

* * *

The Power Rangers teleported to the Command Center. Tommy pulled off his helmet angrily. "Are you freakin' insane?"

Jason pulled his helmet off. "I was going to ask you the same question! What did you think you were doing out there?"

"Uh… guys?" Trini said.

Tommy paid no heed to Trini, or anyone else but Jason. "I could have taken him easily. _You_ were just trying to hog the fight for yourself."

"You were endangering _all_ of us by not following the plan," Jason said.

"The _plan_," Tommy said. "The plan where we all fight the Putties and you take on the monster yourself? _Brilliant_ strategy, oh wise and noble leader. However did you come up with it… Oh, wait. It's your only strategy."

Unknown to the two arguing teens, Alpha was slowly circling the two, a scanner in his hands.

"Guys…" Zack said, "you really shouldn't…"

"Oh, so you think you can do better!" Jason shouted back.

"With both arms tied behind my back."

Jason smirked. "That's me you're thinking of. Or have you forgotten."

Tommy rolled his eyes. "I seem to remember a certain Red Ranger blundering into the middle of the moon palace… unmorphed… and getting himself taken prisoner."

"So you _do_ think you can do better than me."

Tommy ground his teeth. "Of course I can. Sure, you've got the ego of a leader, and the pompous speeches, but you don't have the brains to back it up."

"Jason. Tommy."

Zordon's voice cut through the angry shouts easily. Jason and Tommy turned around instantly.

"Leave the Command Center immediately, both of you. Do not return unless I call on you."

There was a moment's shocked silence.

"He started it!" Tommy retorted.

"It was him," Jason threw back angrily. "He won't take orders."

"Those are _my_ orders," Zordon said. "Either follow them or hand in your power coins. I have no time for this petty bickering."

They both paled, and the other four Rangers stared at them in shock. They both looked like they were going to say something, but thought better of it at one look at Zordon. They both teleported out.

"What… the… _hell_…" Zack started.

"Where did that come from?" said Kimberly.

Billy looked down. "I think this is partially my fault. I…"

Trini shook her head. "No, Billy… We heard all about what you said to Tommy, and what he said back to you, and… while…"

"You hurt Tommy's feelings, but you know that," Kimberly said. "But that's not what's going on. If it was, Tommy would be having a shout-down with you."

"And it totally doesn't explain Jason," Zack said. "Zordon, do you have any ideas?"

Zordon was waiting patiently for the Rangers to finish and turn their attention to him. Instead, though, of addressing them directly, Zordon said, "Alpha. Have you run the scan?"

"Yes, Zordon," the little robot said. "It's just as you thought before they teleported in. They have been infected."

"Infected…" Trini whispered. "With… with what?"

Even as they were speaking, Billy was bending down, carefully pulling something from the floor. He held it up to the light for the others to see. It was a tiny dart, not much bigger than a splinter, black against his white glove. "Zordon, I saw this fall from Jason's helmet. Is this what could have affected Tommy and Jason?"

"It is very probably," Zordon answered. "Scan it and run it through the database. Hopefully, you will be able to find a match. But be careful that it does not infect you. We know it can pierce through your uniforms."

Billy gingerly set it in a small dish and set it in a slot in the main computer. The scan began running.

"So you think," Zack said, "that Jason and Tommy are under some sort of spell?"

"Yes and no, Rangers," Zordon said. "While they are certainly not acting like themselves, which immediately made me suspect they had been… tampered with, I will not say that the animosity between them is coming out of nowhere."

Kimberly was rubbing her head. "But I thought we solved all these issues. We shared our illusions, painful as it was. We agreed to work together. And… well… Jason has always taken Tommy's side. It just doesn't make sense that they're against each other now."

"I don't think it's that simple," Trini answered. "I think part of it is a personality clash. They're really too much alike. I mean, if you listen to what they are really arguing about, it's all about competition. They both have competitive personalities, and they're competitive about the same things. Mix in the life-and-death battles of the Power Rangers… and this was really inevitable."

"I believe you're correct, Trini," Zordon said. "Yet both of them are responsible and fair. They would have found away other than fighting to hash out their problems. That is why I think they've come under Rita's attack."

"Your suspicion is justified," Billy broke in. "That database says that this splinter is diffused with a type of 'rivalry' potion, causing great animosity between the two subjects. But… there's something else. There's an ingredient that's making it stronger. This potion shouldn't be having these effects, according to the database." He looked at Zordon. "Do you think that is because Jason and Tommy were already rivals?"

"That does not explain the extra ingredient," Zordon said slowly.

"Zordon!" Alpha said. "What about the break-in at the Realm of Fire?"

"Realm of Fire?" Trini said.

"Isn't that a Johnny Cash song?" said Kimberly.

"It is the realm of the Fire Elemental of this system," Zordon answered. He frowned. "I was afraid of this. It was reported that a warrior in golden armor broke into the realm, overpowered the elemental, and stole a valuable Proto-Potion… a potion that enhances other potions and certain types of power. I did not suspect Rita, since this happened at the same time as the last fight with Rita."

Zack sighed. "Golden armor, huh? We know Scorpina was busy beating up Tommy, so survey says… Goldar."

Kimberly rolled her eyes. "Great! As if there weren't enough drama around here, Rita just likes to cause more."

"What can we do to cure it?" Trini said. "Do you think the serum…?"

"No," Zordon cut her off. "I'm sorry, Trini, but I'm not sure how much longer we can keep using your serum, or even if we should. Now that we know Rita can counteract it, it may prove too dangerous."

Trini tried not to look disappointed.

"Well, we're gonna have to do something," Zack said. "Ever since Rita's been using all those new powers, we need both of them."

Billy was leaning against a console, looking at the ground hard. "We can probably engineer some sort of antidote. We do not have anything approximating Rita's talent for magic, but potions sound a lot like chemistry, and with the database's help Trini and I can put together something."

"It will not be as easy as that, unfortunately," Zordon said. "The Proto-Potion is strengthening the spell, so an antidote administered to Jason and Tommy will not have the proper effect." He frowned. "In order to break the spell, they will have to want to break the spell."

Kimberly sighed. "Again."

"You know," Zack said, "when Tommy shakes off _this_ spell, he'll be plenty pissed off."

"Guys," Trini said suddenly, "I'm less worried about what they're going to do when they wake from the spell than what they're doing right now."

The Rangers shot worried looks at each other. Jason and Tommy had left the Command Center in a tearing rage after being kicked out and humiliated by Zordon. Plus, they weren't in their right minds.

"Billy and Trini, you will begin work on the antidote for as long as you can," Zordon ordered. "Zachary and Kimberly, see what you can do to stop Jason and Tommy from causing any trouble."

Zack sighed. "I _knew_ I'd have to step between them."

* * *

In the meantime, Project ChickMagnet (or Operation Skullmobile, depending on who was talking) was in development stages. Bulk had gotten his aunt, who worked at a printing business, to give them a deal on posters and tickets. Skull had cleaned out his backpack just to house them safely until they could be posted or sold.

"Got the posters… got the tickets…" Bulk said breezily. "Now we just need the fighters. I say we talk to them separately. Who do you…?"

"Jason," Skull said quickly. "You can take the other guy."

Bulk shrugged. "We'll set up ticket sales tomorrow morning. Just make sure Jason's in the park by 4:00 tomorrow, ready to fight."

"Bulky, are you sure this is legal?"

"Just keep those posters away from cops and teachers, and we should be all right," Bulk said. "If anyone asks, we're setting up an exhibition match."

* * *

Tommy sat in the Youth Center, watching the news. Jason wasn't there, and that was all right by him.

He reviewed the events of one of the shittiest days in history. He'd found out his dad was dating someone… which was okay. But then Billy had gone ballistic about it, and Jason… What a jackass! How could he have ever respected someone like that?

How could Kimberly like someone like that?

"Up next, our second part in a continuing series about the Power Rangers." The cheery voice on the television cut through Tommy's thoughts. "The Green Ranger: Who is he really?"

"Yo, Ernie!" a boy working behind the counter called. "They're doing one of those Power Rangers segments."

Ernie bustled up to the bar, rubbing his hands. "Thanks, Dave. Mind doing the rest of the kitchen breakdown?" Ernie glanced at Tommy. "I love this stuff. Anything to do with the Power Rangers."

"Yeah…" Tommy said quietly. "They sure are something."

"A month ago," an intense yet charismatic reporter began, "a Ranger of a different color showed up: the Green Ranger. Since then, he has remained a puzzle."

The show cut to a clip of a man serving hot dogs in the park. "He was definitely a villain at first. I saw that first fight when my car broke down near the fight. He was beatin' the Rangers pretty bad, with those gold-plated monsters as his buddies."

The report cut to the beautiful, blonde reporter walking through the park with a microphone. "Since then, the Green Ranger fought against the Power Rangers in at least two confirmed attacks, one with his 'Zord,' and, in perhaps his most dramatic conquest, against the student body of Angel Grove High School."

A wide-eyed teenager Tommy barely recognized replaced the reporter. "He hurt two kids. I mean, one got shot in the arm. Until some football player tackled him." The kid shook his head. "I dunno what's going on now, but back then he was crazy scary."

Ernie shook his head. "I gave Bulk and Skull free sundaes for a week after that. Never thought I'd be that glad to see them walking in the Youth Center."

"Gee, thanks, Ernie," Bulk said. Ernie jumped. He hadn't noticed him sitting there.

Tommy's eyes were still glued to the television. The report was showing a clip of Billy's mom. She was describing the attack. "It was the most terrifying experience of my life," she said through a cracked voice. "We all might have died." Her eyes grew steely. "And I don't care how powerful he is… If he ever sets foot in my house again, he'll have to answer to me what he did to my son."

The time signature on the video put the recording at four days after the attack.

"Yet, recently," the reporter went on, "we have captured footage of the Green Ranger working with the Power Rangers, and against the alien monsters that continue to plague Angel Grove. A group of teenagers saw the Green Ranger protect children from a group of Putties during the most recent attack on the downtown area. So what are his motivations? That remains a mystery."

The clip turned to the Angel Grove dock, where the face of a frowning man filled the screen. "Look, I don't care what good he did. He's still got a lot to answer for. Two of my crew almost died cuz of that Zord thingy. All I say is, he can't do enough to make up for what he done."

The report ended and Ernie turned the TV off. "Well, that was depressing. Tommy, Bulk, we're closing up. Go home."

"See ya, Ernie," Bulk said. "Come on, Tommy, walk with me."

Tommy let Bulk lead him out of the Youth Center. The sky was already dark, and he didn't have a way home. He walked over to the bus stop, and Bulk followed him. Tommy wanted to shrug Bulk off, but the news report was fresh in Tommy's mind.

"Tommy…" Bulk started, for some reason nervous. "I got a little proposition for you."

Tommy looked up warily. That was weird.

"I couldn't help but notice that things were a little… tense… with Jason earlier. Now, I don't need to know the details." Bulk laughed in what he probably thought was a winning way. "I just wanna know if you want to do something about it."

Tommy cocked an eyebrow. "Something?"

Bulk paced in front of Tommy. "Picture this: you're surrounded by people cheering you on. You're in a one-on-one, no-holds-barred fight with Jason. Jason is dancing around you like the smug little bastard he is." Bulk began doing a mockery of martial arts. "One… two… you know him down in front of everybody." Bulk smirked. "It will make up for that draw at the Expo, and everybody will know who's the better fighter."

Tommy considered this quietly. "No-holds-barred?"

"None whatsoever."

"And plenty of people will be there?"

"The whole school, if we can sell enough tickets." Bulk began to sweat. "And about your cut…"

Tommy raised his hand. "Don't need it. Well… I do need it, but I'm not going to take it. This is, after all, personal."

"So you'll do it?"

Tommy nodded slowly. His bus pulled up. "When and where?"

"Park at 4:00 tomorrow."

"I'll be there," he said as he was getting on.

Tommy slumped into a seat around the middle, pulling out some homework he had to get through before tomorrow. He was mentally and physically exhausted. There was one part of his mind that wondered why he had agreed to fight Jason… but when he thought about Jason his mind clouded with anger. Oh… he would make that jackass pay.

Bulk, on the other hand, congratulated himself on his deft persuasive techniques. He wondered if he would end up having to talk to Jason after Skull screwed up.

* * *

"Hey, Jason!"

"Yeah, Skull?"

"You wanna fight Tommy tomorrow at 4:00 in the park?"

"Yeah."

"Cool. See ya then."

* * *

Kimberly was waiting at Tommy's house, sitting on the front stoop.

"Didn't want to bother your dad," she said as Tommy walked up. "And we don't really know each other."

If there was anything he wanted to see at the end of a shitty day, Tommy decided, it was Kimberly.

Tommy sat down next to her. "So we're skipping the second and third dates and going into 'meet the parents'?"

"No," Kimberly said. "That's why I didn't go inside." She smirked. "Though you could do something to pay your dad back for this afternoon."

Tommy blushed, remembering the scene he walked in on. "That's… okay. We can take our time."

His heart was pounding. He couldn't believe it. Kimberly was talking about them like they were dating. Like they were… together. He wished he could take one tiny peek inside her head. What if he was getting all the wrong signals?

Kimberly was playing with her necklace. "So… you and Jason sort of scared us this afternoon."

Tommy's mind clouded over.

"I mean, you were both making good points, but I've just never seen you two…"

"You want to talk about Jason, do you?" Tommy said sharply.

Kimberly jumped a little, not understanding the look he was giving her. "It's just… we're a team. We need to come together when it counts, especially against Rita."

"So just lock-step whenever Jason says anything," Tommy said, "no matter how stupid it is. All for the good of the _team_… right?"

Tommy got up angrily. "You wanna talk about Jason? Go talk to Jason. That's what he's best at, anyway. And I guess you'd be a lot happier."

"Tommy… no…"

Tommy didn't wait to hear what she had to say. He burst in the house and slammed the door after him.

"Tommy!" his father shouted from the living room. "Are you okay?"

"Fine!" the word came out in a short bark, and Tommy pounded up the stairs to his room. He slammed his room door, turned up his music, and threw himself on the bed.

* * *

Zack had somehow gotten himself invited to dinner at the Scott household. Jason was eyeing him warily over the table as Zack laughed at some corny joke his dad was telling.

After dinner, Jason and Zack ran down to the basement for a game of pool. Jason broke, while Zack was trying to figure out how to break the silence.

Jason broke the silence himself by saying, "Is Zordon still pissed?"

Zack shrugged. "I don't think so. You know how he gets. And…" Zack took a breath, "you and Tommy were going at it pretty hard. You would have done the same thing."

Jason frowned. "All I saw was that I was trying to knock some sense into that wingnut Tommy, and Zordon wouldn't let me."

Zack positioned his cue, angling his shot. "Dude, that wasn't a lecture. That was getting ready to be a beat-down."

"No, that's tomorrow."

Zack's cue slipped, ruining the shot. He didn't care. "What the heck do you mean, Jas?"

Jason shrugged. "Ask Bulk and Skull. They're the ones getting it together. All I know is that Tommy better be prepared for an ass-kicking."

This time Zack dropped his cue. "…Dude, w-we can't fight each other like this. Not only is it everything we stand against as Power Rangers, but you're setting a bad example as a martial artist. What will our students say? They look up to you, and we're always trying to get them to use nonviolent means to resolve their differences."

Jason looked a little troubled at that. He stared at the floor, and it almost seemed like a fog was sort of lifting from him. But then… his eyes hardened. "I can't help that. The kids will just have to deal with it. Tommy has been asking for this for weeks… months… and I can't believe you're the one defending him."

Zack threw his hands up. "Yeah, Tommy and I have had our differences, but let me remind you that you're the one always trying to get us to make nice. And I don't care who it is… you can't have a grudge match like this. Not in front of everybody. It will completely ruin your reputation."

Jason crossed his arms. "No when I beat him down til he can't move."

Zack closed his eyes. There was nothing he could do. The potion and Jason's pig-headedness were teaming up to become an unstoppable force. All Zack could do was leave and hope the potion would wear off a little by morning.

* * *

Rita casually filed at her fingernails as she watched the proceedings.

"Best case scenario…" she said lazily as Finster prepared her evening drink, "one of them will kill the other." She laughed deep in her throat. "Now, I don't quite expect that to happen. I'm fairly sure those two can break the spell, if they can break the one I originally put on Tommy. But if one did kill the other… What would Zordon do with the other, I wonder…"


	7. Grudge Match of the Century

**Author's Notes**: Grammar fixed.

I want to thank all my reviewers. You know who you are. And I want to wish good luck to Dan, who went to basic training earlier this month.

* * *

**Spells and Illusions**

**Chapter 7: Grudge Match of the Century**

Trini threw a paper down in the middle of the picnic table. "There," she said shortly. "I found it in the girls' locker room."

Billy, Zack, and Kimberly stared at Trini, then down at the paper.

"Grudge match of the century?" Kimberly said. "Duel to the death? What is this, Trini?"

Trini pursed her lips. "Look at the names."

Zack groaned. "They're actually advertising this thing? What're Jason and Tommy thinking?"

Billy had picked up the paper and squinted at the smaller print. "It isn't them. Bulk and Skull are the managers of this travesty… of course." He put the paper down in disgust. "I would imagine they're kidding about the whole 'death' thing."

Zack was still staring at the paper. "Oh, I'm sure the wonder twins are kidding. They don't know what the hell they're doing. Jas and Tommy, though…"

"They're not in their right minds," Kimberly reminded them in a low voice. Her eyes were scanning the crowd nervously. It was ten minutes until the bell to end lunch sounded. They'd avoided the cafeteria and had no idea where Jason or Tommy was. If the two started something, they'd be able to tell soon enough.

"Kimberly's right," Billy said. "Rita's minor spells have always started out tame, but they escalate severely."

"I actually tried to talk Jason out of this last night," Zack said. "He wouldn't budge." Zack took a breath and made the suggestion he didn't want. "We may need to put them in custody."

"I talked to Zordon about that last night," Billy said. "Holding them prisoner would keep them from hurting each other, but it would also keep them from ever shaking the spell. The computer found an antidote for the spell, but the problem is that Jason and Tommy have to want the spell broken. They have to do something that is entirely contrary to the nature of the spell." Billy took a breath. "They'll have to work together, toward a common goal."

Kimberly frowned. "Great. Simple. While we're at it, are there any mountains we should move?"

Trini placed a hand on her shoulder. "Maybe we should have a little faith. I mean, this is Jason and Tommy we're talking about. If there's anyone who can fight this, it's them."

"We're supposed to meet at the Command Center after school," Billy said. "Hopefully Zordon will already have a plan, or we can come up with something before this fight."

"In the meantime," Zack said, "let's all agree to try not to piss off Jason and Tommy more than they already are."

The four started gathering their stuff up. Then Kimberly looked up with wide eyes. "How did Bulk and Skull get that in the girls' locker room?"

* * *

Scorpina pulled her hair from away from her neck and pulled the pillow closer. Her body was still pulsing, the pleasure from minutes ago dulling to a pleasant numbness.

"When do we have to report back?" she asked lazily.

Goldar lay on his back, his eyes closed. "Not for another few hours," he mumbled. He opened one eye, regarding her. "Why? You gotta schedule to keep?"

Scorpina smirked. "Just wanted to know if we have time for another go."

Goldar groaned, though he was smiling. "Shit, woman, you won't be happy until you finish me off… for good."

"So you're saying you can't keep up with me?" Scorpina said, her body flexing in just the way to capture Goldar's attention. "Chickenshit," she said in a mocking voice.

Goldar rolled his eyes. "Look, you crazy bitch… I'm going to sleep." He spread his arms. "You can do whatever you want with this, but just don't wake me up."

"No problem," Scorpina said. "It'll probably be better that way."

"Why, you-!"

Goldar had launched himself at Scorpina, and she half-heartedly wrestled him away, laughing.

He grabbed her in a hold, her arms and body locked against his. She could break the hold, but she didn't want to. "You give?" he said.

"Fine, I give," Scorpina said in a mock pout.

Goldar relaxed his hold, but Scorpina merely snuggled up to him, resting in his arms.

"Been wanting to ask you something," Goldar said after several minutes comfortable silence.

"Uh oh," Scorpina said.

"Nothing like that. Just wanted to know what you thought about Empress Rita's grand plan."

Just like Goldar… talk shop as soon as things started getting intimate. Oh well. "Haven't really thought much about it. I suppose I'm not all that invested in it." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "I'm much more interested in people than causes or plans. That's why I'm a great bounty hunter… and a lousy soldier."

"You're not a lousy soldier. What you've done on the battlefield since you've been here…"

Scorpina snorted. "Again, people. I care about you. I care about Rita. Thus I care about whatever mission I'm sent on. But if you ask my personal opinion on conquering this section of space, or whether we defeat the Power Rangers… Honestly, and don't take this the wrong way, I don't care one way or another."

Goldar was laughing softly. "You're cute when you're pretending you don't care."

Scorpina dug her fingernails into his chest. "Call me cute again and you'll be explaining to Rita why you've got no arms left." She sighed. "Why did you ask, anyway? I mean, she's the boss, right? What she says… goes."

Goldar gently pulled her fingernails out of his chest. He was starting to bleed. "I'm just restless, is all. This is not my style of fighting." He scowled. "All this messing around with emotions, just to screw with them. All just to affect them on the 'long term,' as Empress Rita said. I just don't see the point except to make an extremely pissed off bunch of teenagers."

Scorpina was silent. Goldar hardly ever criticized Rita. It sounded like something he needed to get off his bleeding chest. Scorpina absently licked the blood off her fingers.

"And I wonder if Empress Rita has as much time as she thinks."

Goldar's voice had sunk into a low rumble. Scorpina rose up on one elbow, staring at Goldar's unreadable face.

"Now, what do you mean by that?"

Goldar wasn't looking at her. "There are other powers in the universe, and Empress Rita's imprisonment has made her fall behind them in power. No one has noticed her yet, but once they do…"

"It's against galactic law," Scorpina said. "To steal lands and power from an Empress, or any ruling force… It's against all the galactic accords." Scorpina pushed herself against Goldar. "That's never going to happen. Rita knows what she's doing."

Goldar looked for a minute like he was going to argue, but he decided against it.

Scorpina smirked. "Besides, she's got you and me to defend her. I know we can't take on every force in the galaxy, but we can certainly give anyone something to think about."

Goldar clenched his jaw. "You're right, I suppose."

Scorpina studied his face. What was unreadable to most people was an open book to her… most of the time. But there was something in his face that she couldn't get to.

She rolled on top of him, straddling him. "Come on, you're not sleeping anyway. One more go, and then we can report back to Rita."

* * *

Addams Park was one of the more secluded spots in Angel Grove. On the edge of town, it lacked the upkeep or cheerfulness of the one near the Youth Center and the one near the hospital. No playground: just a few broken-down picnic tables and one basketball hoop without a net.

The draw to this park, though, _was_ its seclusion. The park was mostly covered in trees, and the undergrowth was allowed to go for the most part unchecked. The little patch of woods made an excellent place for teen parties and plenty of necking. In the very center of the woods was a clearing, which was still littered with beer cans from a party the week before.

It also suited Bulk and Skull's purposes perfectly. Cops didn't come there during the day, opting for night patrol to catch any youthful perpetrators. Bulk and Skull knew the patrol schedule exactly, having scouted the area fairly regularly.

Bulk was leaning casually against a tree, keeping an eagle eye out for friend and foe alike. He had a basketball near him, so if any cops had any questions for him, he was just waiting to play ball with someone.

Skull, ever the king of stealth, spotted Bulk from the road and ran to him full-tilt. "Hey, Bulky! Almost fight time!"

As soon as Skull came to a sudden stop at Bulk's side, Bulk smacked him on the back of the head. "Sh… doofus. You wanna ruin everything? You know if we're busted we're in serious trouble."

"Oops," Skull said. He peered around in an exaggerated, spy-from-a-movie way. "I don't see nobody, though."

Bulk sighed. "Whatever. You sold the tickets?"

Skull grinned. "Sold my last one. They're all cool, too. I sent the nerds across town. And this one guy, Stone—obviously a cop. We'll still need a lookout, though."

"Don't worry," Bulk said. "I got a few guys coming. A couple for crowd control, and two more for lookouts. You still took their money, tough."

"What do I look like, an idiot?"

"Don't make me answer that."

They stopped talking as a few kids trickled in, showing their tickets. They went to the clearing to wait for the fight.

A few minutes later, four enormous teens showed up. "Hey, Bulk. Where do you want us?"

Bulk directed them as Skull stared. Bulk grinned as the four went to their posts. "Linebackers."

"For who, the 49s?"

"Ha, ha," Bulk said. "The big one, Stan… he's my cousin. They go to Angel Grove Community College. And they need money for textbooks. Now, you go up to the entrance and break up that crowd that's coming. Twos and threes only… we don't want to tip anyone off."

Within fifteen minutes, nearly 200 people had wandered casually into the clearing from various points in the park. A few were utilizing Bulk's basketball just to make everything look more kosher. The headliners, though, had not shown up.

Skull had left one of the linebackers at the entrance after giving him a description of the two fighters. He stood next to Bulk, eyeing the crowd nervously. "Bulky, do you think this was such a good idea? If this doesn't go down, we're gonna have a mob on our hands."

Bulk was smiling, but sweating. "Don't worry so much. They'll show. It's that whole honor thing… they can't back down from a fight."

"I hope you're right," Skull said, "cuz this crowd is getting' pretty restless."

Skull was right. Stan and his friend were already having to quiet a few down.

Jason was the first to show, prompting cheers that were quickly silenced. Jason was eyeing the crowd uncomfortably. "I didn't know so many would show. Seems like this is none of their business."

Bulk plastered on a smile. "Don't worry… they're just here to have a good time. Like all of us."

"Has _he_ shown up yet?" Jason said.

At that moment, Tommy broke through the trees. "You think I'd miss this opportunity to take you down a peg or two?"

Jason's entire body seemed to be exuding a challenge. "I'd like to see you try… without any of your usual help."

"I couldn't have beaten you any time without… help."

Bulk looked from one to the other. They seemed to have switched into some sort of code.

"You've never beaten me."

Tommy laughed. "The sad thing is, you can't tell when I'm pulling my punches. I could have beat you easy at the Expo if it weren't for tournament rules."

"And let me remind you I knocked you out at… your friend's house."

"Say that again," Tommy said in a dangerous voice, advancing on Jason.

"Hold it!" Bulk said, knowing he was taking his life in his hands by coming between the two. "That crowd out there is expecting a fight. If you want to tear each other apart, at least do it a few feet over thataway."

Tommy's and Jason's eyes were still locked, mirrored in hatred. It seemed like they weren't even aware of Bulk.

Then Tommy smiled. "Fair enough."

"Doesn't matter where," Jason said. "Long as I get to take a piece out of you."

Bulk herded them into the ring, counting on his hired security to make a path. He wondered if this all was worth it.

As soon as the fighters entered the ring, the crowd of spectators exploded in cheers. Bulk stood between them, holding up his hands for attention. "Welcome to the fight… of the century!" he boomed. Cheers greeted him. In the corner of his eye, he could see Skull surrounded by a small crowd, exchanging money and slips of paper. The betting pool… their real cash cow.

"Gentlemen," he turned to Tommy and Jason. "This ain't a tournament. The only rule is… there are no rules. Last man standing wins, and don't kill each other. I guess… those _are_ rules…" his voice faltered. "But no others!" he returned confidently. "Now… FIGHT!"

He scurried out of the ring to the edge of the crowd. Just in time, too. One second later and he would have caught Tommy's roundhouse kick in the head.

Jason was ready for it, though. He rolled out of the way and caught Tommy's foot with a low kick. Tommy went down. In a tournament, a referee would have blown a whistle and Jason would have backed off, having been awarded a point and letting Tommy get to his feet.

But this wasn't a tournament. And Jason didn't see a problem with kicking him when he was down.

But it was Tommy's turn to be ready. He grabbed Jason's foot, bringing him to the ground as well. Tommy went in for a hold… but then thought better of it and got to his feet. After all, it was Jason with the wrestling background, not Tommy. Tommy had a better advantage if they were both on their feet.

The crowd was yelling fit to burst. Bulk, on the other hand, was watching in silent horror. He didn't know all that much about fighting, but he knew enough to see that Jason and Tommy were fighting… for real. And he and Skull might be held responsible if they really hurt each other. Bulk cut his eyes over to Carl, who was holding a particularly rowdy group back. Bulk motioned to the two fighters. Carl's eyes widened, and he shook his head vigorously. The message was clear. There was no way in hell he was getting between those two.

Infuriated that he'd been brought down, Jason flew at Tommy with a flurry of punches, intent on using Tommy's head as a punching bag. Tommy dodged and blocked where he could, but he couldn't help but take some damage. After a few seconds, Tommy found an opening and caught Jason with a fierce uppercut. Jason stepped back, dazed, so Tommy pressed his advantage. He pulled back his fist…

And couldn't move. Someone had grabbed his wrist.

Tommy's first instinct was to turn and pummel whoever had grabbed him. But that person wasn't Jason, and that was the only person he wanted to pummel right then. In fact, it was like his body kept pulling him forward, like he couldn't not keep fighting Jason.

Alarm bells went off in his head. Something was wrong.

Jason, in the meantime, was wiping blood from his nose. "Dammit, Zack! What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Zack let go of Tommy's fist. "It's time to go, guys," he said calmly.

The crowd had gone silent.

"This isn't your business, Zack, I already told you," Jason said.

Zack glared at both of them. "You're not listening to me, both of you. It's time to _go_." He pointed to his wrist, as if indicating the time. Of course, he was actually pointing to his wrist communicator.

Jason gritted his teeth. "Fine. We'll finish this later."

"Any time," Tommy answered, though without as much venom. He kept giving his head little shakes, as if trying to figure out something.

The three left before the crowd realized what was going on. Then an angry buzzing filled the clearing as the crowd realized they'd been cheated out of a fight.

"Uh… Bulk?" Skull had practically materialized at his side. "What do we do now? I don't think even four linebackers can handle this angry mob. And we can't refund all the money, cuz most of the admission money is tied up in the betting pool."

Bulk took several deep breaths, ready to pull off the biggest snow job of his life. With confident strides to the center, though he would have given anything to run in the opposite direction, he held out his hands for silence.

"The fight is officially over!" he boomed in his most official manner.

"That wasn't a fight!" someone yelled.

"Yeah!" another voice rejoined. "It didn't even last five mintues!"

"We want our money back!"

The crowd rushed forward, but Bulk didn't even flinch. "The fight… the FIGHT…" he raised his voice over the din, and ever quieted to hear. He cleared his throat. "The fight lasted about as long as a tournament fight. It couldn't have lasted longer with severe injury to both fighters. That's how you know this fight was real… Everyone knows real fights don't take very long. Nothing was staged… our guarantee. Probably the first real fight from non-Power Rangers that any of you have ever seen."

The crowd buzzed again, but this time less angrily. They were rather impressed with Bulk's logic.

"But then who won?"

Bulk again cleared his throat. "As a real fight, there can be no forfeit. So the official ruling goes: As the first fighter to get up after both were thrown to the ground, Tommy is the official winner of this match. SO…"

He raised his voice, but this time it didn't work. As the new kid, Tommy was not the popular choice for the winner, and Jason apparently had way more fans in the crowd.

"That's not fair!"

"Jason drew first blood!"

The crowd was again beginning to advance.

Okay, Plan B. Bulk pointed behind the crowd. "Cops! Run!"

It took less than a minute for the clearing to empty. No one wanted to be caught at an illegal fight.

Bulk picked himself off the ground, having been knocked over in the hurry. He laughed and dusted himself off, then went over to pull Skull to his feet. "Always count on the gullibility of people. Imagine, the cops showing up. Okay, Skull, how much did we make?"

Skull didn't say anything. He was mutely pointing behind Bulk, his face pale. "C-c-c…"

Bulk rolled his eyes. "Come on, doofus. What about the money?"

Skull's face broke into a pained, sweaty smile. "I don't know what you mean, Bulky." His voice was forced and unnatural. "But I guess the study group isn't going to show up, so we should go home."

"Huh?" Bulk said. Then it dawned on him. He should probably look behind him.

Two policemen were standing in the clearing, arms crossed and looking unimpressed. "Study group, huh?" one said evenly. He pulled out the flyer they'd printed for the fight. "And is this what you call your study group, gentlemen?"

Skull laughed his most nervous, high-pitched laugh. "But, Officer Stone…"

"You two can walk to the police car, or we can drag you there," Stone said. "Even if we can't prove a fight took place, advertising and charging advance money is enough to take you two in. So… easy way or hard way?"

Bulk sighed. "Easy way," he grumbled. At least he'd find out how much money they made while it was being confiscated.

* * *

As soon as the three teleported to the Command Center, Tommy broke his silence. "We're under a spell, aren't we, Zordon?" he said.

"I believe that is the case," Zordon said. "Rita has infected you both with a rivalry spell, one that seems to have grown in potency over time."

"Okay, what the hell are you talking about?" Jason barked. "I mean, I'd know if I was under some kind of spell."

Tommy rounded on Jason. "Think, moron. What do you want to do to me right now?"

Jason's eyes became pools of darkness. "I want to beat you to a bloody pulp."

Tommy showed his teeth in grim humor. "Same here. So think about this, if it's not too hard… Is that normal?"

Jason's eyes clouded, and he looked confused for a minute. He glanced around at the others, who he'd just noticed were there. "So you all believe this guy?" But the words weren't spoken with quite as much venom.

"You've both been acting out of your minds since the fight yesterday," Kimberly said.

"I mean, seriously," Trini said. "You both got kicked out of the Command Center. That should tell you something."

"And that was no spar I broke up a few minutes ago," Zack added. "From what I saw, you guys were fighting just like when Tommy was under Rita's spell. You were fighting for real, and you could have really hurt each other."

"And if that fails to convince you," Billy said, "you were contributing to a plan made by Bulk and Skull."

Jason's eyes widened. "Okay, now I might be convinced."

"How did you figure it out, Tommy?" Kimberly said.

Tommy's eyes kept cutting over to Jason, but he was obviously working to control himself. "I know what a spell feels like. Spent weeks under one. This one isn't as… sophisticated as the one I was under when I was serving Rita, but it still feels similar. The same impulses you can't control, and more impulses that you don't even think about until it's almost too late. I didn't notice it until Zack grabbed my fist. My first instinct should have been to attack Zack in self-defense, but the spell was overriding my first impulses."

"So now that Tommy's given us more information than we need," Jason said blithely, "how do we break the spell, Zordon?"

"Fortunately," Zordon said, ignoring Jason's jab at Tommy and Tommy's answering glare, "we have devised a solution. The surest way to break a spell that plays on emotions is to counteract it with actions. Since this is a jealousy spell that plays on your rivalry, the two of you must go on a mission together. You must cooperate fully in order to break the spell. On this mission, Jason, you are no longer the leader. You must work as equals."

They were silent, the other four holding their breaths as Tommy and Jason stared up at Zordon.

"Couldn't we take a shot or something?" Tommy said.

* * *

Ten minutes and one inter-space teleportation later, Tommy and Jason were tromping through a rocky, alien wasteland. They were holding two pieces of a map. The map was cut in two in a complicated pattern, so they had to hold the map together carefully to have a chance of telling where they were going.

"Hold it still," Jason barked.

"The wind's blowing, dumbass," Tommy retorted. "Not all of us can be perfect," he added under his breath.

Jason kept studying the map. "Great. Cuz your whiny bitch routine is so helpful."

They had been walking for about a mile, and their greatest victory was they had yet to come to blows, though that was only with iron determination… and a wish to get off that planet and away from each other as soon as they could.

"So what are we supposed to be finding, anyway?" Tommy grumbled.

"If you had been paying attention, you'd know it was some kind of extra Zord. We need to get it before your old boss Rita does."

It was when Jason mentioned Tommy's connection to Rita that the situation became the most dangerous. Tommy bit back his retort and let it simmer. He'd get that puffed-up jackass soon enough.

In the back of both of their minds, and another reason they had not come to blows… they knew this was wrong. Their animosity was unnatural. And they knew they weren't there for some McGuffiny Zord that might not even exist. It was to break out of the spell, and if there was something they hated more than each other at the moment, it was being under Rita's spell.

Jason pointed. "So we're looking at about a mile that way."

Tommy did a mocking bow. "Lead on, Dudley Doright."

"That one didn't even make sense."

"… Shut up."

* * *

Goldar and Scorpina walked into a throne room that was utter pandemonium. Rita was adjusting her telescope wildly, pointing it seemingly at random away from Earth. Finster was at some controls implanted in the wall, punching buttons and calling out numbers. Squatt and Babboo, having recently discovered television, were loudly singing songs while wearing sailor suits and curly wigs.

"Where… ARE… they?"

"My Queen, coordinates 33598-24796, the second planet, might be possible."

"On the go-OO-ood ship… Lollipop…"

Scorpina cut her eyes over to Goldar. "If we back away slowly," she said quietly, "we can get out before we're noticed and be back in bed in two minutes."

"You accursed Power Rangers! I'll find you yet!"

"My Queen, make that the third planet…"

"There's a swee-EE-eet trip… to the can-dy shop…"

Goldar smirked at Scorpina. "Coward."

"Damn straight."

Goldar strode forward, rather bravely, Scorpina thought. "May I assist, my Empress?"

"LET ME WORK!"

Goldar backed away slowly. "You're right," he whispered to Scorpina. "Let's get out of here."

"AH!" Rita said, calling the room to silence. "There you are, my pretties…"

"I know this one," Babboo crowed. "And your little dog, too!"

"And you're the winged monkey," Squatt joked, poking Babboo.

"Quiet!" Rita said. She grinned slowly. "Yes… there they are. Decided to go off-planet, have they?"

Now that Rita seemed less volatile, Goldar and Scorpina decided to stay.

"Finster!" she barked. "What do we know about this planet? Get me some readings, already!"

Goldar casually peered over Finster's shoulder. "No…" he said quietly. "That's not possible. An energy reading of that size can't exist on a low-inhabited planet."

"Unless it were being used as a storage area," Scorpina said.

Finster, sounding a little annoyed at the looky-loos, reported, "There certainly is an unexplained high power reading. It is located in the only continent in the northern hemisphere, in the southern rocky mountain range."

Rita was carefully adjusting her telescope. "Ah…" she said as she hit the right location, and then she dropped the telescope in astonishment.

"Rita?..." Scorpina said.

But Rita's face was breaking into a wide grin. "Goldar, I want you and Scorpina down on that planet in five minutes with a full squad of Putties. Finster, give them the coordinates and any extra information you have on the Zord Titanus."

"Empress?" Goldar said. "What exactly are we looking for?"

"One of the lost Zords, and one with amazing abilities." Rita frowned. "And the Power Rangers' destruction, if you don't let those Rangers get to it first. Jason and Tommy are a mile away from it as we speak."

Goldar smirked and summoned a squad of Putties with a flick of his sword. "Now, _this_ is my style of fighting."

* * *

Tommy threw a hand up over his face, stumbling over a rock. He blinked rapidly.

"What the matter?" Jason said roughly. "Too hot for you?" He was sweating profusely, though, as he said it.

"For your information," Tommy growled, "something bright just shone in my eyes. I think it's from that mountain over there. See that white patch?"

Jason shaded his eyes. "Yeah. Might be what we're looking for. And you might not be entirely useless."

"Unlike some people I know," Tommy quipped.

Jason opened his mouth to fight, but found he was too tired. "Fine. Let's just see it and get this over with."

As if on cue, as usual, the two found themselves surrounded by Putties.

"Oh, fantastic," Tommy said. "Now Rita knows where we are."

"And probably why we're here," Jason said. "Let's take care of these quick."

Which they did, after morphing. They were far too tired to take on the whole squad without a power boost… and without the internal air-conditioning of the suits.

As the Putties disappeared, Jason and Tommy looked to the mountain. They didn't want to look at each other. They'd been working together by habit and instinct, and they didn't want to admit it.

"Call me crazy…" Jason began.

"You're crazy."

"But I think I see gold shining near that mountain," Jason finished.

Tommy cursed. "The Putties were a distraction while Goldar or Scorpina or both got to the Zord before us. We shouldn't have wasted all that time."

They started running, now three times as fast in their suits. But Jason was still angry. "The Putties wouldn't have let us get away and you know it. Will you STOP questioning my every order?"

"Only you're not the leader on this trip," Tommy taunted. "And I'm beginning to think Zordon should keep that permanent."

"Oh, and who do you think would be a better choice? You?" Jason managed to squeeze as much sarcasm as he could out of his voice, though he wasn't usually sarcastic.

"And why not?" Tommy said. "I'm the one who spotted the Zord. I'm always the one to see through Rita's plans, while you stumble around in the dark."

Jason smirked. "Okay, if you think you're hot stuff, let's make this interesting. A contest, to see who gets to the Zord first."

"You're on," Tommy said. "If I win, I'm leader of the Power Rangers."

"And if I win," Jason said quietly, "you give up your power coin to me."

Tommy's breath caught. He hesitated, but then gritted his teeth. "Deal."

But he'd be damned if he ever gave up his power coin to anyone, especially Jason.


	8. Trust and Honesty

**Author's Note**: Grammar fix.

Thanks to all those who reviewed me, and the few who scolded me for the too-long cliffy. And welcome to all the new readers. Your reviews kicked me in the pants enough to get on the ball with working on this fic, and reminding me how much I enjoy it.

* * *

**Spells and Illusions**

**Chapter 8: Trust and Honesty**

As they paced around the mountain, considering the white Zord towering above them, Scorpina was reading from the information Finster had given her.

"Titanus. Made by the mysterious architects of the Power Coins and sundry other powerful relics. While it is powerful in battle on its own, being equipped with a large armament, its true power lies in the ability to combine powers. The combination is always stronger than the sum of its parts." She furled up the scroll. "Well, that's definitely useful. Wonder what Rita has in mind for it."

"Who knows?" Goldar was scanning for any traps. He reached out, and then immediately drew his hand back. "Tight security system, though. I could see something start tracking me as soon as I put my hand over the mountain. Must be some sort of motion detection system. Finster give us anything about that?"

"Nope," Scorpina said. "I'd suggest we look around, though. I mean, whoever put it here had to have made it possible to get to. Otherwise why not just destroy it?"

"Good thinking." Goldar checked behind him. "Looks like the Putties didn't keep them long. They're coming up fast. Let's get out of sight. We don't want to clue them in to anything we find out."

The two ran around a rock formation, all the time searching for any sign of an opening.

* * *

A few minutes later, Jason and Tommy were at the base of the mountain.

"Looks like they're gone," Tommy said.

"So where do you think they went, Captain Obvious?"

Tommy frowned at Jason, though he knew Jason wouldn't be able to see. "Yeah, whatever. They're probably halfway to the Zord now." Without warning, Tommy launched himself up the mountain.

He got a few feet before he met with any resistance. Then a branch caught him midstride, flinging him smoothly back away from the mountain. He landed hard on his butt a few paces behind Jason.

Jason cleared his throat. "You know, you could check things out for once before charging like a big dumb bull."

Tommy was already on his feet. "Just testing the security. As I expected. It's a good security system."

"And you're damn lucky it's a non-lethal security system so far," Jason said. "And I doubt even Goldar was stupid enough to go charging up the mountain. We may actually have to think about this one."

Tommy scowled. "We? You remember our bet, don't you? Or are you afraid you'll lose?"

"Fine. Don't take my help. But don't follow me, either."

"One way or the other, I'm never going to follow you again."

The words came out in desperate bursts, as if the effort of supporting the hatred of the spell was overwhelming them both. They turned and ran in opposite directions.

* * *

"Goldar, take a look at this."

Scorpina was crouching next to sheer edge at the base of the mountain, as if part of the rock had been cut off with a laser. The smooth wall was the first distinctive area they'd found. Scorpina was investigating while Goldar stood guard.

"What've you got?" he answered, only barely looking her way.

"A seam, right now. Might be a door, though. I just can't get my fingers in there." She nursed a nail that had torn to the quick in her attempt. "Your sword might be able to pry it open."

Goldar looked affronted. "My sword is a relic of ancient power, given to me by…"

"It's got a sharp edge, and you can get more leverage with it than with my blade. Now get your sword out and stick it in, already."

"Déjà vu," Goldar muttered. He pushed his blade through the seam and pushed the hilt toward the wall. After a few minutes the door flew open with a screech of rushed metal. It had been hidden well by dirt and a layer of plaster-like substance.

Goldar took a step toward the dark cave the door had uncovered, but Scorpina held him back with a hand. "The door has some writing on it," she said. "Better see if there are any clues before we plunge into the unknown."

Goldar squinted at the writing. "Unless you're a scholar in ancient languages from some unknown part of the galaxy, I don't think it'll do us any good."

Scorpina grinned. "I'm more the physical type. If there weren't universal translators, I'd be screwed."

"Thought so. Fortunately, we know an expert in ancient languages." Goldar pulled out a small communicator. At this distance, Rita's telepathy didn't work. "Finster, come in."

The communicator crackled for a few minutes while the message travelled to the moon palace. At that distance, no communication was entirely instantaneous.

"Yes, Goldar, I'm listening," Finster answered. "Queen Rita demands a report. We have been unable to maintain Ritascope contact with you."

"We've found an entrance to where Titanus is stored, Empress Rita. And we know we've found it before the Rangers. There's some instructions, we think, that are written in some strange language."

"Good work," Rita answered. Goldar and Scorpina smiled at each other briefly at the praise. "Finster is sending something down that will help."

They waited. Then Scorpina jumped as something shimmered into existence right next to her feet.

Finster's voice crackled over the communicator. "Take a picture of the writing with this device. Just press the green button. Then press the same button twice to send it to me."

"You and buttons," Scorpina grumbled. "Hang on."

After a few minutes of waiting, far fewer minutes than they were expecting, Finster's voice crackled back on the communicator.

"This is frightfully easy," he said in a rather smug voice. "What you see is the Baktian hymn of harmony and cooperation. It is traditionally a duet, and it celebrates the binaries of existence."

"Thanks, Finster. We'll report in later." Goldar put away the communicator. "Frightfully easy is right."

"We don't have to sing, do we?" Scorpina grumbled. "Cuz if you have to sing, I plan to be elsewhere."

"Don't be ridiculous," Goldar said. "It's a riddle, not sheet music. It's a duet about harmony, cooperation, and binaries. Obviously, it's giving the clue that whatever obstacles are in that mountain can be solved through the cooperation of two people."

"Oh." Scorpina grinned. "I knew that." She glanced away from the cave. "And the good news is, even if the Rangers find this entrance, with the spell on them they'll never be able to compete with us."

"Sometimes life just works out that way."

Goldar and Scorpina took one last look at the bright day, lined up with each other, and stepped carefully into the darkness.

A minute later, a silent figure dropped from a nearby tree. Jason edged toward the cave. He was unmorphed, as his uniform did nothing for stealth. And he'd heard everything.

"Cooperation, huh?" Jason said with a sneer. That didn't sound good. He took a step toward the edge. As soon as the toe of his sneaker touched the threshold, Jason heard the whine of electronics. He backed off. He had no idea what the security had in store, but he was doubtful it would remain non-lethal.

"That's just fine," he grumbled. "Perfect." He tapped his communicator.

"Lost already?" he heard the snide voice from the other side.

"Can it," Jason snapped. "If you're done wandering around, I found something. I'm at the north end of the mountain. And don't take all day."

"Well, since you're so helpless with me…"

Jason wanted to break his communicator just to stop hearing Tommy's voice. The only thing that stopped him was that then he'd be stuck on a planet with Tommy. And Goldar and Scorpina, but that didn't seem so bad.

"Just get your butt over here," Jason barked. "I… think the way to get past the security system is to… cooperate."

"…Damn."

Jason morphed while he waited for Tommy, not wanting to be caught with lesser power just in case Tommy was in the attacking mood.

* * *

It had been an hour of wandering in the semi-darkness. The two Rangers had even lost track of Goldar and Scorpina, who had apparently never noticed Tommy and Jason behind them. Or if they had, they'd chosen to ignore, Tommy reasoned. After all, if the whole key to getting by the security system was two-by-two cooperation, a big fight in the middle of the mountain would be extremely stupid.

"We passed that rock formation already," Jason grumbled.

Tommy felt like screaming. Just one good, long scream that would bring any enemies or, hell, the whole mountain down on their heads. He and Jason had to stay close together out of practicality, and the spell itched inside Tommy's head. It was like a physical ache not to hit Jason now. Yet Tommy could recognize this as a spell. Made it easier to resist… but not by much.

"I guess you're going to blame me for our being lost," Jason continued quietly. "It's always my fault, isn't it?"

"When did you plan to send out the invitations to this pity party?" Tommy said tightly.

Jason didn't respond. Tommy could see him vaguely just out of the corner of his eye. His face looked strained… tense. Was it the spell? Or…?

"You know…" Jason continued, still ignoring Tommy's snide remark, "it's funny. You're so hot for command. Wanting to take over my job." He paused, and his voice became less bitter. "There are times when I feel I'd give it to you in a heartbeat."

Tommy stared straight forward. He didn't dare look at Jason. He didn't know what was happening, but he could see past the spell enough that he knew this was important.

"A leader is always responsible. Always. Every screw-up, every fouled-up plan… even when it's someone else's fault. Like when I got myself captured at Rita's palace. Or almost got myself killed by Goldar. And by you. Every stupid decision I endangered myself and everyone else… including you. I… I just get so tired of it."

Tommy tried to sound flippant. "Sounds like ego to me."

"Not ego. Reality. You see it everywhere. Surely you got that much out of Rita's head. She feels it, too."

Tommy bit back several retorts about Jason presuming to know so much about Tommy's former bond with Rita. "Yeah… well… I don't want command."

Jason turned to face Tommy. Tommy quickly halted, keeping them perfectly in line. "What do you mean, you don't want command? The bet…"

"Do you honestly think I want responsibility for the people I terrorized for weeks?" Tommy laughed. "Hell, most people still think the Green Ranger is evil. Saw a news report, complete with Billy's mom, my dad's best new girlfriend, swearing vengeance on me for what I did to her son. On that note, I still can barely look Billy in the face sometimes. It makes me all angry with myself around him, and then I get testy and take it out on him, and then I'm more pissed and take it out on you and Kimberly…" He stopped.

Jason's voice was unreadable. "I… guess we both have damage to get over."

As Tommy processed this, Jason brightened. "Look, there's a door we didn't see. And there's light."

Tommy looked over his shoulder to where Jason was looking. Sure enough, there was a door… and Tommy could have sworn it hadn't been there a few minutes ago.

They entered to see an archway covered with the same writing that had been on the door. They also saw Goldar and Scorpina standing in front of it.

Scorpina turned and smiled. "Well, fancy seeing you two here."

Both Jason and Tommy tensed, expecting the next move to be Goldar's sword headed their way.

Scorpina rolled her eyes. "Oh, relax. Stupid security system won't let any of us fight."

"I'm surprised to see you both here in one piece," Goldar said without turning around. Been… what's the term… male bonding?"

Scorpina smirked. "That sounds kinky to me."

Tommy relaxed, knowing that if Goldar and Scorpina could have attacked them, they would have. He and Jason moved closer to the archway, still keeping clear of the two enemy warriors. "Maybe Rita's spells don't pack the same punch they used to," Tommy said.

"What I want to know is," Jason cut in before the banter could start anew, "why are you two just standing here? Unless this is some sort of Neverending Story gate."

"Whatever that means," Scorpina snorted.

"Looking for clues, Red Ranger," Goldar said. "After all, we can't all eavesdrop in the bushes to find out everything."

"It was a tree, not the bushes," Jason said.

The four stared at the archway, trying to find some sort of pattern in the words, or any indication of how to pass unharmed. Once, Jason put his gloved hand close to the threshold. He barely pulled back in time to avoid a laser blast through the hand, and he had to spend the next few minutes ignoring the chortling from the enemy warriors.

"So…" Tommy said after several minutes of silence, "open sesame? Speak friend and enter?"

The archway lit up.

"You're kidding me," Jason remarked.

A voice boomed from the ceiling… from all over. It sounded ancient. It sounded a bit like Zordon… but different. "Only those who share the bond of true friendship, with perfect trust and honesty, may enter and gain the power of Unity, of Titanus. Enter once and only once. If your bond is true, receive the power. If your bond is false, you will leave this place and never return. Proceed wisely."

"Great," Scorpina groused. "More of this touchy-feely crap." She smirked at Tommy and Jason. "Feel like taking the chance, boys? Or does Rita's spell pack enough of a punch to give you pause?"

Before they could answer, a wall slammed between them, separating the Rangers and the gold-armored warriors.

* * *

"Looks like we can't cheat off each other," Scorpina commented.

Goldar's eye twitched as he regarded the wall. "I suppose not." Taking a deep breath, he held out his hand to Scorpina. "I don't know if what we have it friendship, but it's a sight better than what those Rangers have, spell or no spell."

Scorpina took his hand, giving a real smile. "Trust. Honesty. I'd say we have our bases covered. You ready for this?"

"Whenever you are."

The two entered the archway.

* * *

"They've probably got Titanus already," Tommy said quietly.

"You can't know that." It had been several minutes since the wall came down, and Jason was sitting on a low rock formation.

Tommy chuckled. "Those two may bicker, but they love each other. I've seen them together too many times." His voice gained an edge. "It's obvious when people love each other, you know? They may never say it, but it's obvious."

"Okay…" Jason said slowly. "So we can't compete on that level. The recording never said anything about physical intimacy… thank God. All it said was friendship… trust and honesty." He pulled off his helmet. "Are you saying we can't compete on that level? I mean, you're the expert at throwing off curses."

Tommy considered a moment, and then pulled off his own helmet. "I think I have you to thank for the whole curse-throwing thing."

"You thanked me."

"Yes."

"And I haven't felt the urge to punch you for the past half hour."

"… Neither have I."

The two looked at each other. "So…" Jason said, "I guess the spell is broken?"

"Yeah."

The two looked away, and then began speaking at one time.

"I'm real sor…"

"I didn't mean…"

They broke off, and then laughed.

"I can't believe we almost fought each other… for Bulk and Skull's profit," Jason said, still laughing.

"Yeah, you'd at least think we'd have made them split the profits," Tommy said. He cleared his throat. "I… can't believe I made that stupid bet with you."

Jason closed his eyes. "Look, I don't want you off the team. I don't think I could have picked a better Ranger than you. Rita may have given you that Power Coin, but you're a Power Ranger through and through, Power Coin or no."

Tommy was pointedly looking away, and Jason politely ignored the emotion showing on his face.

"Friends?" Jason said.

"No matter what," Tommy answered.

Jason got up. "Then let's get through that stupid archway. If it doesn't let us through, it's no fault of ours."

"Jason… wait."

Jason turned around. He was surprised to see conflict in Tommy's eyes. Were they really not completely over the spell?

Tommy kept his eyes on the ground. "I just want you to know… I'm not going to get in the way. I… I know about you and Kimberly. I was jealous… yeah, still am. But, I don't want this getting in the way of our friendship. Trust and honestly, right? I… just want you to know that…"

Tommy heard a chortling sound and looked up. He was stunned to Jason's face distorted… with barely-contained laughter.

"Me… and Kimberly?" Jason's voice sounded choked. "You thought…"

Tommy stared at Jason in open bewilderment. "But what about the Island of Illusion? I saw the two of you. You were… holding each other. It all looked pretty intimate."

Jason's laughter was calming down. "I didn't realize you were there. I'm sorry for what it looked like. I was comforting her. She'd just had that crazy vision. She's like a little sister to me, I swear." Jason chuckled. "I may be the only boy at Angel Grove High who can say this, given her popularity, but I honestly feel no attraction to her whatsoever."

"You're kidding me," Tommy said, still in shock at this reversal. His face darkened. "Why not? What's so wrong with her?"

Ah, love and jealousy. "Well, for one thing… she's kind of mean to guys. Especially the guys she rejects. And this is not just Skull we're talking about. Don't get me wrong… Kimberly's one of my best friends, but you gotta be willing to take the punishment to date her. Not that I'm saying she's not totally worth it," Jason backtracked quickly. "I mean, I think she's just mean to the guys she doesn't want to get involved with. Take, for instance…"

Tommy shook his head. "But… I saw you and her at our campfire thingy. You looked pretty… cozy."

"We were talking about you, idiot," Jason said.

Tommy's face again dissolved into blank astonishment.

"Like you said," Jason smiled. "You can tell when people are really in love. Kimberly digs you. Why do you think she had that vision at the Island of Illusion? Why do you think she shoved you out of the way when you were facing that Samurai guy?"

"She… likes me?"

"I think you're the last person to know that. So… all this time you were jealous of me and Kimberly?"

"Yeah."

"Well, she's all yours, man."

A barrier that had nothing to do with any spell seemed to lift between them.

"Well…" Tommy said in a forcibly light tone, "you have any deep dark grudges against me?"

"Not that I know of," Jason said.

"Then I guess we should get through that archway. Goldar and Scorpina probably already have Titanus, but there's always a chance."

"And we came all this way."

Without a further word, Tommy and Jason stepped through the archway with no resistance. Immediately they were surrounded by white light. They shielded their eyes, and then forced their helmets back on to filter the blinding light.

"You have succeeded, pilgrims," the ancient, Zordon-like voice boomed. "You have proven worthy. The power of Titanus, of Unification, is yours. You need merely call the name of Titanus, you and those you call friends, and it will appear to you."

Jason grinned, a little stunned. "Cool."

Tommy was grinning as well, relieved they had succeeded. "Wonder what happened to Goldar and Scorpina?"

* * *

Scorpina pulled herself out of the dirt. Goldar lay feet away. She grabbed her stomach, hoping her ribs were just cracked and not broken. A few pieces of her armor were loose and dented, and she was bleeding in several places.

Getting thrown off a mountain would do that.

Goldar cursed, pulling himself painfully to his feet.

"What was that all about?" Scorpina said. "How come creepy voice guy threw us off the mountain?"

Goldar threw a murderous look at her. "Apparently…" he said through pained gasps, "we weren't… worthy."

Scorpina started brushing herself off. "What do you mean, we weren't worthy? We have trust. Honesty. Unless…" she trailed off.

Goldar gathered a few armor pieces that had broken off in the fall. Some of them had embedded in the ground. "Let's get the hell out of here, before those Rangers break out of that mountain with that Zord… or before they fall on top of us."

"No, Goldar, we're not reporting in until you tell me what's going on." Scorpina grabbed Goldar's shoulder, but he wouldn't turn around. "Goldar, if you don't tell me now, I'll tell Rita you jeopardized the missions just because you wouldn't…"

Goldar rounded on Scorpina. "You really want to know what wrong?" he challenged. "You… SLEPT with him!"

Scorpina felt like she'd been hit in the stomach again. "Wha… what do you…?"

"Oh, don't play dumb," Goldar growled. "You know exactly what I mean. You slept with Tommy. The night before our attack on the school. I know all about it, so don't even try lying about it."

"How would you know about it, if it indeed happened?"

Goldar's lip curled. "I… smelled it on you. Both of you."

Scorpina felt like she was growing sicker and sicker by the minute, but she held her ground. "Okay. So I slept with him. Why haven't you brought it up before, if it pissed you off so much?"

Goldar looked at her hard, and then turned to walk in the other direction. "We should get away from this mountain… All that techno-mystical mojo screws with the teleportation."

Scorpina held her ground. "You didn't answer my question."

Goldar stopped in his tracks. He didn't turn around. "Do I have to?"

Scorpina couldn't answer. The sheer bitterness in his voice shocked her to her core. He sounded… hurt. Betrayed. And like he'd been holding these feelings below the surface for weeks. She now recalled every strange look he'd given her… the anger in the love-making she'd just taken for extra kink. And every time he'd called Tommy "traitor." That word he meant for her as well.

"I suppose I'm to blame," Goldar finally said in a quiet voice. "I always knew what you are. You're a freelance bounty hunter… a warrior who can't stay with one master. You don't even care about the money. You just give it out to anyone you please. And you pattern your love-life the same way."

"Goldar…"

"So I've never had any illusions about your fidelity," Goldar said. He was still looking away. "But… in the _next room_. With someone I considered a… comrade. And why? You were bored? I was asleep?"

The shock began to wear off, and Scorpina's rage began to rise. "Now, you look here, Goldar. You've always been the one to have such a hard-on for commitment. Who always put such damned importance on sex. Well, here's a tip, sweetie. It's just bodies. Just two bodies creating reactions in each other. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy every minute of those reactions with you, but if you think you can control this body because of it… If you think you have any kind of sway over who I have sex with…" She was starting to see red, and Goldar still wouldn't turn around. "Then you really didn't know me at all."

Scorpina panted for breath. She wanted to hurt Goldar… to make him react in some way. She wanted him as angry as she.

But he wasn't. He just stood there, with his back to her.

"No," Goldar said in a casual voice. "I suppose I didn't know you, after all."

* * *

As soon as the two Rangers teleported into the Command Center, Tommy felt himself tackled. He stumbled back against a console.

"You made it!" Kimberly squealed. "We were so worried!"

Tommy felt his lips pull back in what had to have been a goofy grin. He didn't even care about the others smirking at them.

"We were definitely worried," Trini said. "We lost all contact with you as soon as you touched down."

"Spell broken?" Zack addressed Jason.

"Completely," Jason said.

"Welcome back, Jason and Tommy," Zordon said. "I am pleased you were both able to overcome your differences."

Jason cut a glance at Zordon. "Funny how that security system worked, needing two people in unity and everything. The guy even sounded like you, Zordon."

"Eltarian design and influence span the galaxy," Zordon answer simply.

Jason let it alone. He knew Zordon never talked about his past or his people. "Well, we got Titanus. Goldar and Scorpina gave us a bit of trouble, but nothing we couldn't handle."

"We know… at least about Titanus, that is," Zack said, motioning to Billy and Alpha, who were working with fevered excitement and barely seemed to have noticed Jason's and Tommy's return.

"Ay-yi-yi!" Alpha said triumphantly. "The Titanus Zord has increased the power of all Zords by ten percent."

"That's not all," Billy said. He looked up at Jason. "We have increased firepower, and Titanus has enabled some interesting Zord combinations. We should have a few new surprises when Rita attacks next."

The klaxons rang. Zack groaned. "You know you just jinxed us, Billy."

At the alarm, Tommy and Kimberly pulled out of an embarrassingly long kiss. "Whuzzat?" Tommy said woozily.

"Ay-yi-yi-yi-yi!" Alpha exclaimed, this time in distress. "The sensors are picking up TWO distresses in Angel Grove."

"Seems like Rita's getting back at us for beating her to the Zord," Jason grumbled. "What do we have?"

"Behold the viewing globe," Zordon said as said globe focused in on of the attacks. "This monster, already in giant form and attacking downtown Angel Grove, is called Lizzinator. This one is particularly powerful, made from metals practically unknown to this galaxy." He paused. "I'm not sure if even the Power Sword could make a dent in it."

"Can we say gulp?" Kimberly said.

"It gets worse," Zordon continued. "A monster called the Slippery Shark is attacking the park. It can burrow below the dirt and 'swim' underground, where its fin is dangerous to anyone that crosses its path. Tommy, you will face the Slippery Shark while the rest of the Rangers attack the Lizzinator."

"Yes, we can say gulp," Tommy said quietly. He realized only Kimberly knew of his shark-fear. But it still made sense that he would fight the extra monster. He was, after all, the extra member.

"Zordon… I think I have a plan. Could we change the lineup a little?" Jason said. His voice sounded casual, but there was an excited tremor underneath.

"What do you suggest, Jason?"

All the while the others had been looking at the monsters, Jason had been consulting quietly with Billy over the new Titanus-enabled powers. "According to this," Billy pointed to the readings, "there's only one Zord combination with the speed and power to take down the Lizzinator."

"Which doesn't include me," Jason grinned. "That's why I'll take on the Slippery Shark. In the meantime, I think it's about time we started surprising Rita."


	9. Belonging

**Author's Notes**: Grammar fix. Thanks for all the reviews!

* * *

**Spells and Illusions**

**Chapter 9: Belonging**

Jason touched down in the park, sword drawn and on his toes to meet any danger.

And then he was no longer on his toes. Then he was on his back.

"Ow…" he groaned. He looked to his right to see a gray fin sliding smoothly through the ground, throwing aside rocks and tufts of grass, but otherwise slicing through the hard earth as easily as if it were water.

Jason scrambled to his feet as the shark doubled back for another pass. This monster was quick, and in order to have any chance against it he'd have to get it above ground. He stared steadily at the fin as it shot toward him, and at the last second stepped out of the way and swung his sword down to cut the shark. Sparks flew. Jason was thrown back. Yet his objective was accomplished: a Hammerhead-style shark monster faced him.

"Hello, ugly," Jason muttered, settling into a guard stance.

"Greetings, Red Ranger!" the shark monster exclaimed. "I am Slippery Shark. I have been waiting on 'fins' and needles for you."

Jason dropped his sword a fraction of an inch. "Dude, did you just say 'fins and needles?'"

The monster seemed to falter. "Why not? It's a perfectly legitimate pun."

Jason shrugged. "I'm just saying, a monster who knows words like 'legitimate' should be able to say something more clever than 'fins and needles.' It doesn't even make sense."

"But, you say, I replaced the word 'pins' with…" The monster paused. "You're trying to mess with me and get me all mad!"

"Just because someone can't take a little constructive criticism…"

The monster yelled and attacked… sloppily. Jason grinned behind his mask and countered neatly, sending the monster sprawling. Round one to the Rangers.

* * *

The Lizzinator monster towered over Angel Grove. It hadn't done any serious damage, preferring to wait for the Power Rangers to be drawn out.

Said Power Rangers—Billy, Zack, Trini, Kimberly, and Tommy—were congregated on a hill overlooking the town: the perfect vantage point to assess the monster and call their Zords.

"That's an ugly one, all right," Zack remarked.

A passing V of Canada geese winged past the monster's head. The monster reared back, opened its mouth, and burped out a great gout of flame. The geese were instantly incinerated.

"And it can breathe fire," Kimberly commented.

Trini was livid. "How dare that thing kill those geese! They weren't even hurting it!"

"Let's just be glad it wasn't people," Tommy said grimly. "Billy, you sure this is going to work?"

"Positive," Billy answered. "We'll still have a difficult fight ahead of us, but the odds will be more in our favor."

"Let's get it started, then," Zack said.

Their Zords answered to their call, and they expertly leapt into their cockpits… and Tommy, for the first time, leapt into his.

Tommy took a minute to gaze at his surroundings. He'd been in the cockpit of the Megazord on one memorable occasion. This place was different. It was darker, for one thing. It seemed… older. Tommy had the feeling that his Dragonzord was not from the same place as the other five. He rubbed the dashboard. He liked the remote access his Dragon Dagger afforded, but this seemed somehow more satisfying.

The Dragonzord shrieked. Tommy grinned. "Nice to see you, too."

A voice crackled over his controls. "Tommy, we're ready," Zack said. "You need to initiate the transformation."

"Right," Tommy agreed. His hands began moving of their own, keying in the proper commands. It still marveled him how all this technical information came so easily to him when he was morphed. "One Dragonzord in Battle Mode coming up," he muttered to himself.

* * *

Rita quickly adjusted her telescope. None of the Rangers were following predictable patterns. And what the hell were the Zords doing?

No one was in the throne room. They were all hiding after Rita's last fit of rage before she'd deployed the monsters. Goldar and Scorpina weren't back yet, and in her ire Rita was starting not to care whether they came back or not.

In the meantime, it looked like the Rangers had lost no time in using their newfound powers, powers which Rita could not entirely calculate.

"Well, shit," Rita said as the Zord combination formed in front of her. "This day just keeps getting better and better."

* * *

Jason spared a glance up. The new Zord was formed, and it looked awesome. He watched as it swept aside a gout of fire from the Lizzinator and counterattacked with a staff that seemed to be made from the Dragonzord's tail. Jason grinned. That was all going according to plan, it seemed.

He felt something smash into his stomach, and he toppled to the ground. He'd taken his eyes off the Slippy Shark and had paid for it. He cursed under his breath and got up.

"Do I have your attention, now?" the Slippery Shark said, calling back the blade it had thrown.

Jason chuckled. "You're gonna be sorry you did that." He charged at the monster. All he had to do was get it into position…

* * *

Tommy found himself at the combat controls of the new Zord… the place Jason usually stood. Behind him the other Rangers were yelling readings and reports. It was giving him a headache just to keep up with that and with the fight outside.

"Shields are holding," Trini reported. "I can't say how many direct hits we can take to our main power center, though."

"Especially since our power levels are dropping quick," Zack said. "Why are the power levels dropping?"

Billy was muttering under his breath as he worked frantically. "It's… how this thing utilizes power," Billy finally said. "It's faster and more powerful than the Megazord, and we don't have to wait for a charge to call the staff weapon like we do the Power Sword, but it also burns through power quicker as a result. It has less stamina than the Megazord."

Tommy pulled the Zord sharply out of the way of head-butt attack from the monster. "Then I guess we end this fight quickly," he said. "Hit as hard and as often as possible."

"Sounds like a plan," said Zack. "I'll try to maintain power as much as I can. I'll draw more from Titanus if I need to."

"Get what you can, and put it in the staff," Tommy said. "We just need one good, clean hit."

* * *

Jason pushed his advantage against the monster, though he couldn't get in a hit. What he could do, though, was maintain a cat-and-mouse game with the all-too-slippery monster. He'd managed to get the monster out of the park and far away from people. They were now at the cliff near the beach.

"Face it, Red Ranger," the Slippery Shark taunted. "You've been running away this whole time. You know you're completely outclassed by me. Why don't you give up? Empress Rita might even have mercy on you."

Jason laughed. "In her case, I think the quality of mercy would definitely be strained."

"…Huh?"

Jason frowned. "Sorry. English homework. The point is, you have one chance to walk away from this. This might be a good time to pull one of those famous villain retreats."

This time the monster laughed. "I have you beaten, boy. Your friends are all at the other fight. You have no one to save you. What can you do against me?"

Jason shrugged. "Don't say I didn't warn you. Okay, Kim," he said in his communicator, "he's all yours." With that, he ran to the side and dropped to the ground.

The monster stared at him, amazed. Then it heard the gentle whine of an engine behind it. It turned to see the Pterodactyl Zord rising from just below the cliff, hovering gracefully in the air.

"Wha…?"

The Pterodactyl Zord opened fire, blasting him with all lasers. In seconds, the monster was atomized.

Jason stood up and brushed himself off. "Nice going, Kim."

"I feel really guilty," Kimberly said over her communicator, though she didn't sound at all guilty. "Do you think that was overkill?"

"Maybe," Jason said. "But it was funny. And it serves Rita right for attacking us in two places."

"Hey, if I couldn't be part of the new Zord combination, at least I got to do that," Kim answered. "You think I need to go help out the others?"

"We'll both be on hand just in case," Jason answered. "But I don't think they'll need our help."

* * *

"We got about a minute of power, Tommy," Zack called over the noise of the battle. "If we keep the staff power levels like this, anyway. I had to route some to Billy for that fire problem."

"We can't draw anymore without overloading the entire system," Billy said.

Tommy cursed under his breath. That "fire problem" was what was prolonging the battle. It wasn't the metal components in the monster that was giving them trouble: it was the fire attack. As soon as Tommy could get a clear shot, the monster would blast them with fire, overheating their systems. The Rangers in the cockpit were protected by the Zord and their own uniforms, but only just. They had to back away every time.

Of course…

"Trini?" Tommy said almost casually, "how much fire do you think the shields can withstand?"

"Without killing us?" Trini said. "How much fire are we talking about here?"

"Tommy, you're not about to do something crazy, are you?" Zack said.

"We just need enough time to get in one clean, strong hit," Tommy said calmly. "Anyone who's not willing to go through fire to do it, now's the time to teleport out."

There was a pause, and Tommy waited for all of them to jump out or take control of the Zord or… something.

Zack laughed a little manically. "What, and miss all the fun? Not on your life."

"If this is the only way, we're with you," Trini said.

"Let me take a fraction of the staff power for the coolant, and give Trini just as much for the shields." Billy didn't even sound fazed by the idea of throwing the Zord into a fireball. "We should be able to last for whatever you have planned, but I don't think we'll get another chance. We'll have to make this one count."

Tommy felt his throat close up a little. "Then let's make it count. I'll attack at your signal, Billy."

"Wait a minute…" Billy said. "Affirmative."

Tommy had been parrying and circling the monster. Now, he rushed head-first. The monster, predictably, sent forth a massive wave of fire. Suddenly, Tommy felt absolutely terrified that this wouldn't work. He nearly had to force his hands to keep them on course for the few steps separating them from a true attack.

The sound of fire and klaxons were deafening. Tommy could barely hear the yells of his fellow Rangers.

"SHIELDS ARE FAILING FAST!" Trini yelled.

Billy barely sounded like himself. "WE'RE LOSING MOTOR FUNCTION!"

"Just… a few… more… seconds…" Tommy said through gritted teeth.

In one strong move, he jabbed the staff through the weakest point he'd found, a point at the monster's lower stomach. Fire surrounded them, smoke filled the air, but the monster was falling nonetheless.

"GOT HIM!" Zack yelled triumphantly. "WE FREAKIN' GOT HIM!"

The fire died out as the monster fell, and Tommy pulled the staff out. The monster exploded, knocking the Zord back several paces.

Tommy breathed a sigh of relief. They had won. He hadn't completely screwed up at his first command after all.

* * *

This was perhaps not the best time for Goldar and Scorpina to finally teleport in.

Rita was sitting on her throne, fuming. Her nails clacked against the gilded arm. No one else was foolish enough to be in the throne room right then.

"So…" she said slowly, dangerously. "You've finally decided to show yourselves."

The two warriors suddenly forgot their differences under Rita's hard stare. They forced themselves to face her, even though both of them felt the strong compulsion to run the other way.

"You'll be interested to know we've lost our recent battle against the Power Rangers," Rita said. "I don't suppose you can guess how they achieved this, even with two monsters, one of which was the strongest Finster had ever made?"

Goldar's eyes grew wide. "So… they got Titanus…"

"OF _COURSE_ THEY GOT TITANUS!" Rita exploded. The two warriors took a step back at the outburst. "That's why I sent YOU two bumbling nitwits, though now I have no idea why. I should have sent Squatt and Babboo. Hell, two Putties could have done a better job."

Scorpina gritted her teeth. She wasn't sure if she'd deserved _that_. "Rita…"

"Don't you say a word, Scorpina. Neither of you." Rita's wand sparked once as the careful check she kept over her anger wavered. "You had superior technology… superior information. You had a headstart. And they had a _rivalry spell_ on them. What more did I need to do to assure victory, do it myself?"

Scorpina held her tongue. She'd be damned if she told Rita the real reason for their failure. She felt sure Goldar felt the same way.

Rita was clutching her head, the usual post-magic headache coupling with the anger. "Just… get out of my sight. Both of you. I need to decide how to clean up your mess."

Goldar and Scorpina stalked out of the throne room. Goldar turned sharply into his room and slammed the door in Scorpina's face.

Scorpina considered the door. She could break it down… force Goldar to talk to her and stop being so wounded. Didn't he know, after all, that Tommy was ancient history? That in his current state she'd have no opportunity to take up with him again? Didn't any of that matter to him?

But breaking down the door would just start a fight with him and draw Rita's ire. Instead, she went to her own little-used room and flung herself on her bed.

* * *

Kimberly leaned against Tommy's arm as the sunset deepened from bright orange to deep purple. They were sitting on a low tree branch in Tommy's uncle's property after an entire day spent with each other. They'd mainly roamed Angel Grove: the mall, the park, the nature trail… They'd avoided the beach, and there were still a few awkward moments, but otherwise it had been paradise for Tommy.

"You have to go soon," Kimberly said.

"… Yeah." Tommy reached an arm around Kimberly. He was not eager to go.

Kimberly looked up into his eyes. "It's okay. We have tomorrow. And every day after that."

Their lips met. Tommy found he was afraid to breathe, as if he could burst the moment like a bubble and everything would end. He wasn't used to… permanence.

They broke apart reluctantly. Kimberly jumped from the tree branch, and Tommy had no choice but to follow.

It was a good thing they'd said their goodbyes in the backyard, as Tommy's father was waiting at the door. "Didn't want to interrupt," he said, "but it's about that time. Kimberly, you sure you don't want to join us?"

Kimberly smiled. "No thanks, Mr. Oliver. I really gotta get home."

She gave one last smile that practically melted Tommy on the spot, hopped in her car, and was gone.

"Nice girl," John commented. "She's the pink one, right?"

Tommy's eyes snapped alert. "Dad, you promised…"

"No one's around," John said. "Now grab the food in the kitchen while I get in."

Tommy picked up the grocery sack from the table and locked the house behind him. His father was already in the car. He put the sack on the floorboard, folded up and stored the wheelchair in the back, and finally they were on the road.

"I'm just saying," Tommy continued, "that we really have to be careful. I think Zordon was that close to finding out a way to wipe your memory… if he doesn't already have a way."

"Tommy, relax," John said. "I said I'd never reveal your identity, and I never will."

Tommy nodded once, but he was still nervous. "Especially… around Billy's mo… I mean Sylvia. You know how she feels about the Green Ranger. I don't want her to find out about me."

John nodded. "You really think she'd react that badly."

"Oh, yeah," Tommy said. "You didn't see the news report I saw. And, honestly, I wouldn't blame her if she didn't forgive me. I terrorized her and nearly killed Billy. That's just not something you forgive in a hurry."

"Billy's forgiven you," John reminded him.

Tommy smiled softly. "Yeah, well, that's Billy."

They pulled in to the Cranston driveway, and Tommy took a breath. Of course he had to return to the scene of the crime to do this. It might not have been so nerve-wracking otherwise.

Dinner went smoothly. Sylvia had a way of making everyone feel comfortable and easy. Tommy even felt himself forgetting his worries surrounding her as she told funny stories about the kids she taught.

"I swear, the little Kindergarten girl was carrying a bag of sand _all_ around the playground," Sylvia said as the other four laughed. "She filled that grocery bag up with sand and was not letting it out of her sight."

There were tears streaming down John's face. "But… why?" he managed out between laughs.

"You know, I asked her teacher that very thing. You know what she told me? 'So she'll have it if she ever needs it.'"

They adjourned to the living room with coffee, sodas, and the brownies Tommy had brought. The news was going off, and Wheel of Fortune was coming on.

"Oh, I meant to watch the news," Sylvia said. "There was supposed to be something about the Power Rangers."

"What's that?" Billy said, trying to seem uninterested.

"I saw that advance footage yesterday," Sylvia said. "Apparently they've got conclusive proof that the Green Ranger has joined the Power Rangers. That… what do they call them, Swords or…?"

"Zords," Tommy supplied automatically.

"That's right," Sylvia said. "Anyway, the Green Zord-thingy joined with other Zords." Sylvia frowned. "I just wonder what made the Green Ranger change like that."

Tommy was trying not to look at Sylvia, but he was actually studying her carefully. There was no longer the bitter edge in her voice there had been in the news report. She merely sounded curious.

"The Green Ranger was a Power Ranger in the first place," John reasoned. "Maybe he just found where he belonged. Ooh. That guy hit $5000."

Sylvia turned her attention to the TV. "No, don't guess a C, you idiot. Guess an R!"

Billy caught Tommy's eyes, and they slunk out of the room to Billy's lab.

"Nice cover from your dad," Billy said as soon as they closed the door. He began pulling out the final components of their project. They were presenting on Monday.

"He's good at that," Tommy said. "Years of explaining away arguments with my mom to me."

"Looks like Jason's plan worked, though. Now people might actually start believing you're part of the team." Billy smiled. "How did it feel, in the front seat?"

"Really cool… and really scary."

Billy laughed appreciatively. "You handled it well." He bit his lip, finally broaching the subject he'd dwelled on all week. "Listen, Tommy, about what I said about your dad…"

"Billy, you don't even have to," Tommy said. "I overreacted."

"You didn't," said Billy. "I should never have even thought it. I really like your dad. He's… good for my mom, I think."

They heard their parents loudly sounding out Wheel clues, competing to be the first to figure it out.

Tommy smiled. "I guess they are. And I'm hardly the one who should ever hold a grudge. You forgave me of something pretty damn big."

Billy tried to shrug it off. "Hey, I can finish this project later. Want to work on the car with me?"

"Are you kidding?" Tommy said. "Skip out on homework to work on cars? What do _you_ think?"

Billy pulled the cover off an old hotrod he'd been working on restoring, wanting to upgrade from the Radbug. As they bent over the engine, Tommy felt a sense of peace he hadn't felt in a long time. He was part of a team. He had friends, and he had a best friend, and he had a girlfriend. His dad had found someone and was finally happy. His dad's words echoed in his head. For once, maybe he had found where he belonged.

* * *

Rita stood before her assembled followers. They were all grim and silent, for Rita was in a dangerous mood. Her eyes shone in a way that always meant danger.

"We have allowed a traitor to live," Rita said softly. She let the words sink in for each of them. She didn't have to say Tommy's name. It was the great unspoken word among them.

"I recruited him," Rita continued. "I gave him power. He walked as an equal among you, sharing in the triumphs and defeats. He lived here. He was one of us.

"Then he left. And he did not just leave. He joined our enemies to fight against us. He used the power I gave him against me. He's a thief and a traitor.

"And through it all, he considers himself righteous," she ended bitterly.

With a wave of her wand, she summoned the candlestand. A fat, green candle stood on it, untouched as yet by fire.

"I have considered many ways to repay him for what he's done. But they were all too quick, and we would profit nothing by his death. The Green power coin would go to Zordon and the Power Rangers.

"But we must not suffer him to continue to thwart us. To continue as living proof of our weakness."

With a flick of her hand, she conjured a fire and touched it to the white wick of the candle. The flame sputtered weakly, and then grew stronger. The wick blackened. Soon, the wax would start to melt.

"To your fall, Tommy Oliver."


End file.
